Back in 1984… Well, back in 1984 most of you probably didn’t even exist, but for the rest of us 80s kids, the scariest Christmas movie ever, Chris Columbus’ Gremlins, hit the big screen–and feeding your cat after midnight was never the same. Starring Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates, the bleakly humorous monster flick included a teacher killed by lethal injection, an elderly woman shot out of a window, people crushed by a clocks and bulldozers, and the BEST “there is no Santa” scene ever captured on film. In other words, it was the perfect holiday story for us fans of dark fantasy. One of the best.
Although it seemed the reemergence of this 25-year-old franchise was stuck in limbo, a recent interview with Zach Galligan has given us hope that the Mogwai may yet return. And, according to Galligan, Gremlins 3 will be a “sequel” to the original film and definitely “not a reboot.” This may dishearten fans of 1990’s absolutely insane Gremlins 2: The New Batch, but creator Chris Columbus apparently has little love for the Charles S. Haas scripted sequel. The director plans to erase it from our collective consciousness. While many lovers of the original, myself included, found The New Batch to be too cartoonish and too much of a departure from the tone of Columbus’ script, it has its defenders. With its many movie parodies and its skewering of 1980s’ pop culture, even I’ve learned to enjoy the Looney Tunes style satire of TNB. Still, writing a continuing story from the Gremlins 2 script, following its often senseless and fractured plot, would be a terrible idea.
We, at TT3, are excited to see Gremlins 3 back in development. Knowing they will be moving forward with something new and not remaking an already established classic is even more exciting. What do you think? Is a sequel based on the original Gremlins the best idea? Or, should they pick up where Gremlins 2 left off? Let us know in the comments!
~Stacks
Tiny Table 3 