Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

By the time 1990 rolled around, the original Gremlins (1984) had already cemented itself as one of the more interesting genre hybrids of the 1980s, a film that balanced genuine scares with dark comedy and managed to feel both family-friendly and genuinely unsettling at the same time. A sequel was perhaps inevitable, given the commercial success of the first, but the six-year gap between the two films meant the landscape had shifted considerably. The big, brash, effects-driven blockbuster was now the dominant mode, and Gremlins 2: The New Batch, released in June 1990 through Warner Bros. Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, arrives squarely in that spirit. Whether that's a good thing rather depends on what you came for.

Joe Dante, who directed the original, returned to the helm here, though the film he made this time around is a noticeably different beast in terms of tone and intent. Dante had spoken openly about wanting to do something more self-referential and satirical with the sequel, less interested in repeating the first film's formula than in poking fun at sequels themselves and at the broader machinery of Hollywood and corporate America. The setting reflects that ambition: where the original was rooted in a small, quiet American town, The New Batch transplants its chaos to a gleaming New York high-rise, a sprawling multi-use complex that serves as both target and metaphor. The script, written by Charlie Haas, leans hard into parody and meta-humour in ways that were fairly unusual for a mainstream studio picture of the period. The practical creature effects were handled by Chris Walas Inc., building on the work done for the original with a considerably expanded budget and a brief to go bigger and stranger with the creature designs.

Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates reprise their roles as Billy and Kate, the young couple who, since the events of Kingston Falls, have made their way to New York and found themselves working in the aforementioned corporate tower (you can get a sense of what Galligan was up to around this era from the site's review of Rising Storm (1989), in which he also stars). They are joined by John Glover, a reliable character actor who brings a particular brand of manic energy to his role as the building's flamboyant media mogul owner, and Robert Prosky and Robert Picardo in supporting parts that add a little texture to the human side of things. The real stars, of course, are the gremlins themselves, and Gizmo, the Mogwai at the centre of it all, whose unfortunate reunion with Billy sets the whole catastrophe in motion once again. For those curious about how the horror-comedy balance plays out compared to other genre efforts, the site's reviews of Moshari (2022) and Tiger Stripes (2023) offer interesting points of comparison, even if both of those sit in rather more serious territory.

There’s no denying that Gremlins 2 is technically an upgrade from the original, the animatronics are more advanced, the creature designs wilder and more inventive, and the puppetry work from Chris Walas’ team is genuinely impressive. The gremlins themselves are more expressive, more varied, and unleashed in a gleefully chaotic high-rise laboratory and office block, giving the film a slicker, more modern playground than the sleepy town of the first. The effects hold up better in some ways, it’s clear more money and imagination went into the madness. But where the original had a tight balance of horror, humour, and heart, Gremlins 2 leans so hard into cartoonish absurdity that it stops feeling like a movie and starts feeling like a theme park ride with a script. Talking gremlins, a spider-gremlin hybrid, a gremlin that turns into a movie monster mid-scene, it’s all so over-the-top, so relentlessly wacky, that any sense of tension or danger evaporates. The film even breaks the fourth wall, with characters commenting on the violence and the screen going blank as if the projector broke. It’s clever in theory, but it undercuts any emotional investment. Also kudos for Hulk Hogan. The human cast (including Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates) are given little to do but react to the chaos, and while John Glover makes a memorably eccentric villain, he’s too silly to be threatening. The satire of corporate culture and media is there, but it’s buried under too many gags and too much noise. It’s not a bad film, in fact, it’s often fun to watch, with a kind of anarchic energy that’s hard to hate. But it’s too silly, too self-aware, too unserious to ever feel satisfying. A spectacle of puppetry and madness, yes, but the soul of the original is long gone, replaced by a circus. Better effects, worse balance.

I find myself coming back to that word: balance. It's what the original had and what this one sacrifices in pursuit of something louder and more obviously "fun". There's no question the craft on display is impressive, and I don't want to dismiss the sheer ambition of what Dante and his team attempted here. But ambition and execution aren't the same thing, and a film that's too busy winking at the audience to ever let them settle into it is a film that keeps you at arm's length throughout. It's the kind of movie you can enjoy in the moment and barely remember an hour later. Worth a watch if you loved the first, but go in expecting something looser, stranger, and considerably less satisfying. All the fun of the fair, none of the aftertaste.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 1990  | Watched: 2025-08-05

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Trailer

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Joe Dante: Gremlins (1984)
More with Zach Galligan: Rising Storm (1989) · Gremlins (1984)
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)