The movie Quentin Tarantino called a masterpiece: “The greatest MAD magazine ever”
Any up-and-coming director usually has their backs up against the wall at all times. It’s one thing to have a great idea, but the hard part of every job is trying to convince everyone that that good idea is worth pursuing and spending unimaginable amounts of money on in the hopes that it might make a profit. Even though Quentin Tarantino was still honing his craft in the 1980s as a director, he did have a healthy respect for the more outrageous sides of cinema when watching Gremlins 2 for the first time.
But should it really come as any surprise that Tarantino gravitated towards the more outlandish side of the Gremlins universe? He has never been a director known for subtlety, and the concept of these mischievous little creatures that come out at night feels like just the kind of insane idea that’s crazy enough to work on the big screen.
While most people marvelled at the different creatures onscreen, the Pulp Fiction director visited the set to see everything up close and personal. Coming in under the guise of writing a book on cinema, Tarantino watched Joe Dante up close as he put the film together, including being among the first to see the final shot of that cold winter evening.
Even though there’s a lot of heart and soul behind the first film, Tarantino remembered relating to Dante’s view of the more exaggerated parts of the world, saying, “In the final shot, someone suggested adding a Santa Claus and reindeer flying over the moon. I heard him say, ‘Don’t say shit to me like that because I’m liable to think that’s a good idea and make you do it. But I think Gremlins 2: The New Batch is a fucking masterpiece. The greatest MAD magazine ever put into a film.”
Despite the original Gremlins being a decent spooky film for kids and parents alike, that comparison to MAD magazine is much more accurate than Tarantino probably realised. As opposed to someone trying to make something heartfelt from frame one onward, this is the kind of film that’s almost creative to a fault, as if Dante is throwing everything in the shot for maximum impact.
In the case of this franchise, though, that’s not a bad thing at all. No one’s going to look at a movie centred around alien lifeforms that come to Earth and expect a gritty drama, so doubling down and going even further on the sequel is the perfect example of giving the people what they want to see.
Although Tarantino wouldn’t get to see his films gain major attention for a few more years, his filming style is partly a world that Dante helped create. As much as people get a bit uncomfortable with the excessive gore in some of his movies or the stylised violence, no one can claim that any of Tarantino’s films have ever been boring, always keeping you on the edge of your seat even in the quiet moments.
Dante may not have known that he was giving Tarantino pointers at the time, but the best thing he could have learned from the Gremlins director was the freedom behind a camera. Most people try to confine everything in a shot, but Tarantino knows there’s only so much camera space to work with, so you might as well do what you like.
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