"A neverending potlatch"

February 22, 2018 10:06 AM

How can we explain the existence of Gremlins 2: The New Batch? A good place to start is the classic Key & Peele sketch detailing its origins as a Hollywood sequel but, to really dig into the meaning of it, one must consult the Institute for Gremlins 2 Studies. The ruminations regularly posted by the Institute elucidate the hidden symbolism of the gremlins as a challenge to Fukuyama's End of History, revealers of technology's full potential for horror/liberation, and "beings without economy, or perhaps, against economy" who negate the possibility of dialectic.

The Institute also details the conflict between the capitalist dystopia within the futuristic tower owned by Trump à clef Daniel Clamp and the gremlins' own anarchic resistance to normalized surveillance. Gremlins also exemplify pure body horror, bear indirect responsibility for the burst of the Dot Com Bubble, and have had a lasting influence on contemporary Russian politics.

You can also read an interview with the founder of the Institute and lend your support to the effort to ensure that this landmark film is given its due as part of the Criterion Collection.

posted by likethemagician (41 comments total)

In the VHS version of Gremlins 2, instead of interrupting the film reel they take over the TV set, inserting themselves into a John Wayne film. They do not collapse the symbolic order, like certain surrealists works, but rather weave themselves into the very fabric of that order.

Oooohhh, they're good.
posted by JohnFromGR at 10:24 AM on February 22, 2018 [9 favorites]

I only wish someone would give this kind of thought and attention to the problem of "Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League".
posted by ryanshepard at 10:26 AM on February 22, 2018 [24 favorites]

Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League

Demanding fans wait with baited breath, growing weary. I tire. I persist. I believe
posted by Annika Cicada at 10:37 AM on February 22, 2018 [17 favorites]

The novelization's approach to the fourth-wall-breaking scene
posted by jozxyqk at 10:37 AM on February 22, 2018 [31 favorites]

I love Gremlins 2: The New Batch and have since I was little kid. That is all.
posted by defenestration at 10:40 AM on February 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

Gremlins 2 is like a freshman course on postmodernism threw up.

I love it.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:41 AM on February 22, 2018 [7 favorites]

Did this come from MeFi Projects, per chance ?
posted by k5.user at 10:42 AM on February 22, 2018

Gremlins 2 was the prequel to Deadpool. Discuss.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:43 AM on February 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's not so much that Gremlins 2 is a prequel to anything as that everything else is but a mere epilogue to Gremlins 2.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:47 AM on February 22, 2018 [16 favorites]

One of my favorite things to do is make somebody who has never seen Gremlins watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. A shining beacon that has, perhaps unexpectedly, become one of the fixed stars to guide us above the smoky ruins of the late 20th century.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 10:48 AM on February 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

How can we explain the existence of Gremlins 2: The New Batch?

I actually know the answer to this question, because I've had several conversations with the film's director about it. As with nearly every decision made in Hollywood, it has to do with money.

Gremlins was a huge hit, and had the full might of Spielberg, et. al., behind it. So the studio was always keen to do a sequel, especially given the enormous merchandising potential of the films. (Gremlins cereal, anyone?) But Spielberg, Dante, and the key creative people on the film kept having other conflicts and commitments. After about five years had passed, Warner Bros. realized that they had a "now or never" moment: Mogwai were about to depart the zeitgeist. At that moment, the key creative personnel were available and interested, and were - because of the time pressures - given extraordinary carte blanche by Warners. Joe Dante told me more than once that he still can't believe this incredible opportunity. Being intelligent and mischievous by nature, he decided to take full advantage of it.

I love this hilarious, smart, brilliant, one-of-a-kind movie to itty bitty bits, but I sort of hate how it's become the emblem of "HOLY SHIT CRAZY MOVIE" in recent years. grumblegrumble
posted by Dr. Wu at 10:48 AM on February 22, 2018 [31 favorites]

Paging Dinosaur Dracula.

Gremlins 2 is one of my all-time favorite movies. And I really didn't like the original Gremlins all that much.
posted by lagomorphius at 10:53 AM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I sort of hate how it's become the emblem of "HOLY SHIT CRAZY MOVIE" in recent years.
One of the reasons I appreciate the Institute so much is that it provides a parodic counterpoint to exactly this notion, revealing the genuine depths of this "hilarious, smart, brilliant, one-of-a-kind movie" through tongue-in-cheek postmodern analysis.
posted by likethemagician at 10:58 AM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

There will always be a part of me that admirers the moment the bat gremlin gets drenched in concrete, then flies up to a church steeple, lands, and then the concrete promptly dries, turning it into a gargoyle. I love the movie, but that moment is one of my favorites for no discernible reason.
posted by Atreides at 10:59 AM on February 22, 2018 [7 favorites]

That Key and Peele sketch is probably my favorite from their show. Every line is memorable, Peele's performance is utterly magical, and the premise is so perfectly narrow.
posted by lilies.lilies at 10:59 AM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

This is excellent.

Tangentially, for some reason I loved all the weird Gremlins wannabes that took the format "what about little furry monsters" and ran with it. There were Munchies, Critters, Ghoulies . . . hell I'm sure there were a bunch more. But Gremlins 2 was just perfect for me in 1990.
posted by aspersioncast at 11:03 AM on February 22, 2018

I love Gremlins 2: The New Batch and have since I was little kid. That is all.

you may have been sitting the row in front of me when I saw it. I was in my mid-twenties, it was a boring weekday night -- I thought what the hell, there should be some fun special FX if nothing else.

I remember at some point, my ribs hurting from laughing so hard, noticing two little kids in front of me (maybe ten) laughing equally hard, but at different jokes. Anarchic fun for all ages.

the capitalist dystopia within the futuristic tower owned by Trump à clef Daniel Clamp

This was pretty much my introduction to The Donald, reading in a review that Clamp was modeled after him. Which gets me wondering if Gremlins 2 should not in fact be viewed as prophecy. Right down to the somewhat unsatisfying conclusion where (spoiler alert ... and if I'm remembering it right) Clamp/Trump more or less proves himself made of Teflon, wipes away the remnants of the mess he's been a huge part of perpetrating ... and boldly on to the next big careless thing.
posted by philip-random at 11:10 AM on February 22, 2018 [10 favorites]

The Critters franchise is legitimately good. Fight me.
posted by runcibleshaw at 11:16 AM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

This anti-CGI stance may just be another veiled form of retromania.

Guilty as charged.
posted by fshgrl at 11:34 AM on February 22, 2018

I saw Gremlins 2 in the theater opening weekend. The dual crunch of Gremlins and Poltergeist over the same summer was a gigantic crush on the movie-going public that (at the time) it seemed like they would never recover from. Thank god for the PG-13 rating and how much horror it saved the population!

I'm also anti-CGI as much as possible. It's not retromania. It's "my eyes want to believe what they see on the movie screen was actually captured by a camera" which was the magic of movies in the 80s, no matter how bad the movies were.
posted by hippybear at 11:50 AM on February 22, 2018 [5 favorites]

I grew up on Gremlins, and loved it. My older sister will probably still say it's her favorite Christmas movie. But I refused to ever have anything to do with Gremlins 2 because of how completely stupid it seemed.

But a couple of years ago, I went to see a double feature of Gremlins/Gremlins 2 at the Brattle. Between the two films, they showed that Key & Peele sketch, which I had never seen. It was the best possible introduction to Gremlins 2 for someone who had never seen it and didn't really know how ridiculous it is.
posted by cardioid at 11:59 AM on February 22, 2018 [8 favorites]

Am I going to have to watch this again, real soon? I think so.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:21 PM on February 22, 2018

How can we explain the existence of Gremlins 2: The New Batch?

"a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy!"
posted by roystgnr at 12:30 PM on February 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

Every line is memorable, Peele's performance is utterly magical, and the premise is so perfectly narrow.

Is Peele doing his version of Hollywood Montrose from the movie Mannequin?
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 12:45 PM on February 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

This was pretty much my introduction to The Donald, reading in a review that Clamp was modeled after him.

Only in part. I see a closer resemblance to Ted Turner, insofar as Clamp is running an entire TBS-style cable TV network, and comes across more as a good-natured/oblivious yuppie technocrat than Trump ever has.
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:01 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I see a closer resemblance to Ted Turner

I'm sorry, but the fact that they included a character called Marla pins it right on Trump.
posted by radwolf76 at 1:08 PM on February 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

Also, the film breaking moment in G2 was entirely believable in the theater and it was a great experience to have without knowing WTF was going on.
posted by hippybear at 1:10 PM on February 22, 2018 [6 favorites]

When I saw this as a kid, I don't think I understood that he was supposed to be anyone in particular. But I did definitely recognize John Glover from Scrooged and was delighted again. He is always so entertaining.
posted by heatvision at 1:11 PM on February 22, 2018

I'm sorry, but the fact that they included a character called Marla pins it right on Trump.

I'll give you that. Clamp is basically what Trump would have been if he were 1) actually a successful businessman instead of just a debt-surfing fraud, and 2) kind of a mensch, if still a bit aloof to his own recklessness.
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:22 PM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

RE: Trump vs. Turner, consider this observation from the Institute for Gremlins 2 Studies:

"Clamp is more than a Trump stand-in, despite the obvious parallels - the name, the tower, the book. Clamp is a synthesis of Trump and his enemies, a Trump that owns CNN. He is also a forerunner of the high-tech CEO, a proto-Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg. Clamp's charm and tech-friendliness, however, just makes his form of authoritarianism more sinister. Trump's combative relationship with the press has led to much hand-wringing, but Clamp's marriage of centralized authority and control of the media is far more dangerous."
posted by likethemagician at 2:11 PM on February 22, 2018 [6 favorites]

Clamp is what you'd get if you poured water on Trump's hair after midnight.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:25 PM on February 22, 2018 [16 favorites]

> There will always be a part of me that admirers the moment the bat gremlin gets drenched in concrete, then flies up to a church steeple, lands, and then the concrete promptly dries, turning it into a gargoyle. I love the movie, but that moment is one of my favorites for no discernible reason.

You know, you and I are of a kind. In a different reality I could have called you "friend".
posted by mrzarquon at 2:55 PM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

Clamp/Trump more or less proves himself made of Teflon, wipes away the remnants of the mess he's been a huge part of perpetrating ... and boldly on to the next big careless thing.

A similar ending can be found in Joe Dante's Small Soldiers. After the Commando Elite toys totally wreck town, it all gets swept under the rug as a defense contractor played by Dennis Leary shuts everybody up with a big fat check.
posted by jonp72 at 3:16 PM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

Bill Hicks wrote the checks. Dennis Leary just passed them out.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:20 PM on February 22, 2018 [5 favorites]

And I really didn't like the original Gremlins all that much.

It has its charms and drawbacks. The best part of the first movie is the scene where Billy and Kate take a time-out and Kate relates the death of her father.
posted by Fukiyama at 5:05 PM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

It has its charms and drawbacks. The best part of the first movie is the scene where Billy and Kate take a time-out and Kate relates the death of her father.

And they remembered to play off of that scene in Gremlins 2.
posted by lagomorphius at 8:42 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'll give you that. Clamp is basically what Trump would have been if he were 1) actually a successful businessman instead of just a debt-surfing fraud, and 2) kind of a mensch, if still a bit aloof to his own recklessness.

oh I actually know this! Glover was tired of playing jerkish WASP businessmen Trumpalikes like in Scrooged and suggested Clamp was more like a feckless, child-like dauphin, which is more in line with the cartoon antic tone of the movie.
posted by The Whelk at 11:00 PM on February 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

lso, the film breaking moment in G2 was entirely believable in the theater and it was a great experience to have without knowing WTF was going on.

As a young projectionist, that film-breaking scene was my Vietnam.
posted by Optamystic at 4:11 AM on February 23, 2018 [7 favorites]

As a young projectionist, that film-breaking scene was my Vietnam.

A similar conceit is used at the end of the James Taylor vehicle "Two Lane Blacktop," wherein the projector appears to burn through the screen at the end of the last reel.

It was the first film I saw there shortly after having been shown how to thread the two old-school projectors (Christie, maybe?) in the Berkeley Fine Arts Cinema, projectors that used actual carbon arc lamps.

I damn-near herniated myself racing up those steps.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:33 AM on February 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

I just hope this is how Jordan Peele runs his meetings about Get Out 2.
posted by jozxyqk at 2:52 PM on February 23, 2018 [6 favorites]

Sorry, projector appears to burn through the *film*.
posted by aspersioncast at 11:01 AM on February 24, 2018