Post by lazario on Oct 8, 2007 6:09:17 GMT -5
Joe Dante is one of the most unique and interesting horror directors who ever worked in the genre. Because all of his films have a distinct comedic vibe. When looking at the Masters, only 3 are known for a sense of humor in their horror films- John Landis, Larry Cohen, and Dante.
And though it's largely true that he walked away from horror after Gremlins 2, I think most people have been criticising the genre for that time period as well. A great deal of fans say horror's been suffering since the '90s because it was a weak decade. Others, the people who were around in the '80s and were able to go to the theaters to see them, say that the '80s were hard on horror too because there was very little variety in the theaters. That the Friday the 13th films bred too many slashers and all other interesting and different projects had to be made more independently. Projects not involving killers in the woods. Or, retreads of Dante's Gremlins formula (of which there were a great deal).
So it makes sense that such an influencial filmmaker would think there was more creative satisfaction in fantasy, sci-fi, and slightly more family oriented fare. At least, there was as long as Steven Spielberg was the executive producer on several of his projects. Because the 1980's was a very rich time for movies as a whole and Spielberg (and Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, his 2 right-arms) kept them fresh and exciting, but most importantly let the directors have the freedom to make the movies as good as they could make them. On Gremlins, Spielberg may have changed the initial direction of the script, changing the key element of Gizmo becoming an evil gremlin and not staying a mogwai. But Dante insists that was a very good decision all along. When Dante fought with the studio to keep a scene in, Spielberg backed him up all the way to the distribution stage, where the studio still tried to bully Dante into cutting a key scene toward the end of the film.
After giving the genre 3 amazing movies that were all successful (though Dante says The Howling was not successful enough to keep him working), basically Joe had 2 options, just direct bigger-budgeted movies with a little help from Spielberg, or try to get his ultra-ambitious pet project, The Screwfly Solution (which he'd been trying to develop as a feature ever since the '80s, after The Howling was a success) onto the big screen. He gave up on Screwfly, made Gremlins 2 a masterpiece, and then only made sporatic returns to fantasy and sci-fi films, like Matinee, Small Soldiers, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action in all of 15 years. But for a director who was a victim of the industry, he decided to not let the problems with making a horror film his way hold him back from making other films for the studios.
Piranha is in some way a bit of a victim to it's rating. It's rated-R, which means Joe Dante's signature style of chaos will be somewhat expected for the viewer. The 1970's was a big time for natural disaster horror movies, killer animals, and bug / infestation movies. And most of them, those released theatrically, were rated PG (Frogs, Squirm, Orca - yes, Squirm was rated PG when the studio cut down Jeri's shower scene). And Gremlins, Dante's best film really, proves that his horror is more effective when you aren't expecting the amount of intensity he gives you onscreen. But Piranha did come out along with a slew of drive-in exploitation flicks and after the opening kill scene, ups the humor quotient, so... it's easy to fall into that beat. But it's just Dante lulling the viewer into a false sense of security. And Piranha also proves Dante is a master of build-up. He really lets character development, humor, and story build steam up to a real point of pressure and then... it literally explodes.
One of the best examples of how he does that with a movie is Piranha. Because every step of the way, there is just a bit of something Dante's holding back. And that is, though you see most of the aftermath of the piranha's victims, you don't see as much of the feeding. And then, of course... you're just so sure he won't let the piranhas get those children. The series of intercutting shots going back and forth from the children playing in the water to the film's two "heroes" (this is still a horror movie, horror movies don't have 'heroes' - sorry, Ash, you're just a handsome guy with a "boomstick") is actually a little like torture, all of it designed to feel like any other film where you just know the people are going to get to the place to warn all those in danger and save them... But alas, they don't arrive until after the piranhas have chewed on all the kids and claimed at least one victim's life.
And then... just when you think that's as horrific as this movie's going to get... you realize that that scene wasn't even the big finale! There's more carnage to come! What makes the Lost River Lake / Aquafina Springs Resort scene so much more disturbing, even though you don't know any of the victims as characters (except for one- Dante always likes to take at least one of the villains down with the rest of the victims- you see this again in Gremlins and Homecoming), beside the fact that there are more deaths and gore than in any of the earlier scenes, is the way Dante shows it as a very realistic event. The way some people try to help anyone they can out of the water, plenty of people selfishly run for their own lives out the way they came in, the media of course shows up to record the suffering, and most horrifically- there's a large sight-seeing raft/barge out on the water for some of the people to climb onto, but one of the people already onboard starts pushing screaming victims back into the water for fear of the raft tipping over. A valid concern, but... what makes his life any more important than theirs?
The Howling's main claim to fame will always be the infamous "piece of my mind" transformation scene. With good reason, naturally. But what really makes The Howling such a classic is that it's brilliant and perhaps subversive as well. The movie begins by showing us our modern civilization and how the more animal-like person deviates from that. In fact... where are there any werewolves until about half the movie has gone by? That's when you know there's something else going on. That the movie is really all about something else entirely. It's about, as the Doc hints at, the constant struggle inside each "man" to either remain civilized or serve his animal master beckoning from within. Banging to get out. And in this film, we see that with force.
The movie first shows us a certain portrait of 'urban decay' in the city- "John"s waiting on street corners as well as the women they're for, cops surveying the area who don't even want to get involved and are completely jaded and cynical, the evening news serving up huge doses of violent footage from accidents and murders, and establishments that average people don't even want to enter. Is that horrific enough for you? No, Dante goes a step further and adds a supernatural element to it. Which is exactly why nothing he does is standard. And of course, that's the first example of the brilliance of The Howling. That what looks like one kind of movie is actually another kind all along. Some could call that deception. But who's going to complain when it's done this well, with this much impact?
The Howling is ground-breaking and not for it's special effects (although after this film, Rob Bottin became a huge name in the business and went on to great acclaim and was highly sought after in the special effects field). For it's incredibly deft observations and social commentary. The way any film's greatest asset is the ability to tell a really compelling story. And The Howling is certainly compelling. The Karen character goes off to The Colony and, while the more lodge-husband-and-domestic-housewifey characters are spouting self-help speak (which as an approach was very ahead of its' time, another Dante specialty), more wilderness-taking characters draw new Colony members away from any sense of traditional civilization. Bill represents the city person being seduced to a more wild way of living, not only does he betray the loyalty of his monogamy committment to his wife, but he leaves behind his city-healthy and approved-of lifestyle as he stops eating vegetables and starts eating meat again. But exclusively because of his new hunger.
Unfortunately, I haven't seen this one in a long time. But it is an amazing film because each piece that the directors contribute is outstanding and extraordinary. I remember the Spielberg part the most, about old people who get to be young again. But the most horrific installments belonged to John Landis and Joe Dante, for various reasons. Most people go for the one on the plane, directed by George Miller of the Mad Max movies. Nonsense. Joe Dante's was my favorite as a child because it is absolutely insane! This is the first Joe Dante film to really define his trademark cartoon-horror style. Because it is chaotic, freakish, and totally off the wall. Colors, claymation, and lots of screams and terror fly everywhere in scenes that go by so spastically and fast that you barely have time to have them register in your brain.
At least, that was my impression of it.
In case you don't remember the movie either, Joe's segment was the one where he brings a nice woman at a diner to his house to meet his "family" who are people just like her, strangers he doesn't know, that he uses his magical powers to keep in his house. I've been told that the ending was changed and so that's why the fate of the sister is up in the air. But the segment is so hellish and crazy, that when the boy wishes something bad to happen to someone... it's really bad.
Gremlins again is a really good example of Joe Dante's ability to build up horror until it explodes. And Gremlins was so effective in that regard that it, along with Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, was so controversially violent to the MPAA, that they immediately established the PG-13 rating in 85/86. That's just to show you how, for a PG rated film, horrific Gremlins was for its time. Then, critics came out and several bashed the film for being too intense for families. It was the Jumanji of the '80s. And even the critics who liked the film, including Roger Ebert, would write in their reviews about how they saw the film as a legitimate horror film and that's how the film works best.
The film's first and foremost power comes from its' script, written by Chris Colombus, who rocketed to fame when he directed Home Alone. The script makes the movie, after the prologue in Chinatown, look a lot like the Christmas family favorite, It's a Wonderful Life. Which is a film many find sickeningly saccharine and codgeringly sentimental, including myself. With so many things about Christmas to hate or be annoyed by, Gremlins basically tears the entire holiday apart, using the little monsters' rampage to put a huge black cloud over the idea that Christmas brings joy to everyone. Though people had already attributed that to the Christmas slasher movies like Christmas Evil, Black Christmas, and Silent Night-Deadly Night, Gremlins was the only one to actually target the holiday directly. Which can be best seen in the sequence when Zach Galligan says, "I always thought everyone was happy" and Phoebe Cates gives him a rather rude awakening. But that's not the only rude awakening the movie has in store.
Gremlins could also be using the gremlin monsters as a metaphor for how commercialism and consumerism sometimes... well, to use the popular phrase, "created a monster." And even though that's been done before - especially in George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead and Larry Cohen's The Stuff - neither of those films delivered as much wonderful chaos and disaster as Gremlins. Which gleefully shows the creatures demolishing the entire "Postcard" town of Kingston Falls. No one is spared in the rampage. And several people die. Which of course gives the film a sense of reality too.
The final film was drastically changed from Chris Colombus's original script. And tragically, several very gory scenes were tossed. Things that would have made the film even more shocking than it already was. One was a gag / joke, in the scene where Kate was originally supposed to have her "why I hate Christmas" speech, which was going to be after Billy and Kate went into a McDonalds' restaurant to find whole tables where none of the food had been touched. The burgers weren't eaten...but the people had been. Other scenes that were cut or changed include 2 deaths that were changed - Billy's mother and his dog Barney - and the original death of the science teacher, Mr. Hanson, who was supposed to die by having a ton of hypodermic needles sticking out of his face (ala- Basket Case).
And even though the film was changed, it's still quite a ride. No other director could have made such an interesting visual pun/gag as a handicapped character everyone hates whose motorized chair has an "Eject"or's seat (yeah I remember the scene, it was rigged, but the joke still works). Not to mention the infamous Kitchen Massacre scene is infamous for a reason. ;D
Gremlins 2 was a sequel that happened 6 years after the original. Thankfully, Warner Bros. never made a sequel without Joe as a director. Which would have been very disrespectful to Joe and the original movie. Though of course, the reason actually had nothing to do with faithfulness and all to do with the difficulty of getting another script to work. No one else could do it, Warner knew they needed Joe Dante. And Joe, as a very intelligent individual knew to resist the pressure of a sequel. But also, his films had been floundering a bit. Innerspace became successful long after it was released in theaters, initially it was a bit of a bomb and only the actors became famous (Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid), then The 'Burbs was a consomate bomb in every way, and Explorers was screwed up completely by the studio who forced it into theaters before editing had been completed. So, nothing was working out as well as it could have been.
Warner Bros. finally made him an offer - do whatever you want. And he took them up on their offer, found a great script by Charlie Haas (apparently that's also the name of a professional wrestler - not the same guy, folks) that confined all the chaos and disaster within a huge highrise building (with over 70 floors - is that possible??).
Joe Dante fashioned it after something I've never heard of called Hellzapoppin.
Which was apparently the Musical equivalent of a circus of complete slapstick chaos. Anyone remember Wackyland (the place where Gogo 
from Tiny Toon Adventures was from)? Well, I guess it was a lot like that. But since Joe Dante is also a great admirer of animation (and wanted to be a cartoonist before he became a critic and a filmmaker), it could also have been influenced by Porky in Wackyland (a cartoon for the Looney Toons series, which much the same theme, I imagine) that also featured a character that looked just like Gogo.
But anyway, Dante's Gremlins 2 as this Hellzapoppin' influenced film was, if you count onscreen manic energy as quality, better than the first film. But it was a fully realized original vision of Dante's, so it's like the ultimate Gremlins film. A vision that still managed to be horrific and scary- but wholly amusing at the same time. There is literally nothing this sequel won't do, no place it won't go. Even though much of what you see are gags, the film serves up so many of them that... good luck catching your breath. A lot of excitement.
Not to mention that the Gremlins themselves look much better this time around than in the original. Although Chris Walas designed the gremlins in the first movie and then won an OSCAR right after the film for David Cronenberg's The Fly, he didn't have the proper amount of time to fully realize his vision of how the gremlins and their cocoons / eggs should look (on the DVD audio commentary, he reminisces about his amazing vision for the original scene of the litter of mogwai discovered to have become giant eggs/cocoons the morning after they ate after midnight- and you get the idea that what he planned would have looked incredible), and the entire design of the mogwai's and gremlin monsters was rushed through production because of a tighter schedule than he needed.
For this sequel, none other than Rick Baker (who won the OSCAR for American Werewolf in London) and his team designed the gremlins and, naturally, they look TERRIFYING! Here's the best picture I could find:
The eyes aren't right, but still you get a good idea if you haven't seen the movie. And if you haven't seen it... what are you waiting for?
And though it's largely true that he walked away from horror after Gremlins 2, I think most people have been criticising the genre for that time period as well. A great deal of fans say horror's been suffering since the '90s because it was a weak decade. Others, the people who were around in the '80s and were able to go to the theaters to see them, say that the '80s were hard on horror too because there was very little variety in the theaters. That the Friday the 13th films bred too many slashers and all other interesting and different projects had to be made more independently. Projects not involving killers in the woods. Or, retreads of Dante's Gremlins formula (of which there were a great deal).
So it makes sense that such an influencial filmmaker would think there was more creative satisfaction in fantasy, sci-fi, and slightly more family oriented fare. At least, there was as long as Steven Spielberg was the executive producer on several of his projects. Because the 1980's was a very rich time for movies as a whole and Spielberg (and Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, his 2 right-arms) kept them fresh and exciting, but most importantly let the directors have the freedom to make the movies as good as they could make them. On Gremlins, Spielberg may have changed the initial direction of the script, changing the key element of Gizmo becoming an evil gremlin and not staying a mogwai. But Dante insists that was a very good decision all along. When Dante fought with the studio to keep a scene in, Spielberg backed him up all the way to the distribution stage, where the studio still tried to bully Dante into cutting a key scene toward the end of the film.
After giving the genre 3 amazing movies that were all successful (though Dante says The Howling was not successful enough to keep him working), basically Joe had 2 options, just direct bigger-budgeted movies with a little help from Spielberg, or try to get his ultra-ambitious pet project, The Screwfly Solution (which he'd been trying to develop as a feature ever since the '80s, after The Howling was a success) onto the big screen. He gave up on Screwfly, made Gremlins 2 a masterpiece, and then only made sporatic returns to fantasy and sci-fi films, like Matinee, Small Soldiers, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action in all of 15 years. But for a director who was a victim of the industry, he decided to not let the problems with making a horror film his way hold him back from making other films for the studios.
Piranha is in some way a bit of a victim to it's rating. It's rated-R, which means Joe Dante's signature style of chaos will be somewhat expected for the viewer. The 1970's was a big time for natural disaster horror movies, killer animals, and bug / infestation movies. And most of them, those released theatrically, were rated PG (Frogs, Squirm, Orca - yes, Squirm was rated PG when the studio cut down Jeri's shower scene). And Gremlins, Dante's best film really, proves that his horror is more effective when you aren't expecting the amount of intensity he gives you onscreen. But Piranha did come out along with a slew of drive-in exploitation flicks and after the opening kill scene, ups the humor quotient, so... it's easy to fall into that beat. But it's just Dante lulling the viewer into a false sense of security. And Piranha also proves Dante is a master of build-up. He really lets character development, humor, and story build steam up to a real point of pressure and then... it literally explodes.
One of the best examples of how he does that with a movie is Piranha. Because every step of the way, there is just a bit of something Dante's holding back. And that is, though you see most of the aftermath of the piranha's victims, you don't see as much of the feeding. And then, of course... you're just so sure he won't let the piranhas get those children. The series of intercutting shots going back and forth from the children playing in the water to the film's two "heroes" (this is still a horror movie, horror movies don't have 'heroes' - sorry, Ash, you're just a handsome guy with a "boomstick") is actually a little like torture, all of it designed to feel like any other film where you just know the people are going to get to the place to warn all those in danger and save them... But alas, they don't arrive until after the piranhas have chewed on all the kids and claimed at least one victim's life.
And then... just when you think that's as horrific as this movie's going to get... you realize that that scene wasn't even the big finale! There's more carnage to come! What makes the Lost River Lake / Aquafina Springs Resort scene so much more disturbing, even though you don't know any of the victims as characters (except for one- Dante always likes to take at least one of the villains down with the rest of the victims- you see this again in Gremlins and Homecoming), beside the fact that there are more deaths and gore than in any of the earlier scenes, is the way Dante shows it as a very realistic event. The way some people try to help anyone they can out of the water, plenty of people selfishly run for their own lives out the way they came in, the media of course shows up to record the suffering, and most horrifically- there's a large sight-seeing raft/barge out on the water for some of the people to climb onto, but one of the people already onboard starts pushing screaming victims back into the water for fear of the raft tipping over. A valid concern, but... what makes his life any more important than theirs?
The Howling's main claim to fame will always be the infamous "piece of my mind" transformation scene. With good reason, naturally. But what really makes The Howling such a classic is that it's brilliant and perhaps subversive as well. The movie begins by showing us our modern civilization and how the more animal-like person deviates from that. In fact... where are there any werewolves until about half the movie has gone by? That's when you know there's something else going on. That the movie is really all about something else entirely. It's about, as the Doc hints at, the constant struggle inside each "man" to either remain civilized or serve his animal master beckoning from within. Banging to get out. And in this film, we see that with force.
The movie first shows us a certain portrait of 'urban decay' in the city- "John"s waiting on street corners as well as the women they're for, cops surveying the area who don't even want to get involved and are completely jaded and cynical, the evening news serving up huge doses of violent footage from accidents and murders, and establishments that average people don't even want to enter. Is that horrific enough for you? No, Dante goes a step further and adds a supernatural element to it. Which is exactly why nothing he does is standard. And of course, that's the first example of the brilliance of The Howling. That what looks like one kind of movie is actually another kind all along. Some could call that deception. But who's going to complain when it's done this well, with this much impact?
The Howling is ground-breaking and not for it's special effects (although after this film, Rob Bottin became a huge name in the business and went on to great acclaim and was highly sought after in the special effects field). For it's incredibly deft observations and social commentary. The way any film's greatest asset is the ability to tell a really compelling story. And The Howling is certainly compelling. The Karen character goes off to The Colony and, while the more lodge-husband-and-domestic-housewifey characters are spouting self-help speak (which as an approach was very ahead of its' time, another Dante specialty), more wilderness-taking characters draw new Colony members away from any sense of traditional civilization. Bill represents the city person being seduced to a more wild way of living, not only does he betray the loyalty of his monogamy committment to his wife, but he leaves behind his city-healthy and approved-of lifestyle as he stops eating vegetables and starts eating meat again. But exclusively because of his new hunger.
Unfortunately, I haven't seen this one in a long time. But it is an amazing film because each piece that the directors contribute is outstanding and extraordinary. I remember the Spielberg part the most, about old people who get to be young again. But the most horrific installments belonged to John Landis and Joe Dante, for various reasons. Most people go for the one on the plane, directed by George Miller of the Mad Max movies. Nonsense. Joe Dante's was my favorite as a child because it is absolutely insane! This is the first Joe Dante film to really define his trademark cartoon-horror style. Because it is chaotic, freakish, and totally off the wall. Colors, claymation, and lots of screams and terror fly everywhere in scenes that go by so spastically and fast that you barely have time to have them register in your brain.
At least, that was my impression of it.
In case you don't remember the movie either, Joe's segment was the one where he brings a nice woman at a diner to his house to meet his "family" who are people just like her, strangers he doesn't know, that he uses his magical powers to keep in his house. I've been told that the ending was changed and so that's why the fate of the sister is up in the air. But the segment is so hellish and crazy, that when the boy wishes something bad to happen to someone... it's really bad.
Gremlins again is a really good example of Joe Dante's ability to build up horror until it explodes. And Gremlins was so effective in that regard that it, along with Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, was so controversially violent to the MPAA, that they immediately established the PG-13 rating in 85/86. That's just to show you how, for a PG rated film, horrific Gremlins was for its time. Then, critics came out and several bashed the film for being too intense for families. It was the Jumanji of the '80s. And even the critics who liked the film, including Roger Ebert, would write in their reviews about how they saw the film as a legitimate horror film and that's how the film works best.
The film's first and foremost power comes from its' script, written by Chris Colombus, who rocketed to fame when he directed Home Alone. The script makes the movie, after the prologue in Chinatown, look a lot like the Christmas family favorite, It's a Wonderful Life. Which is a film many find sickeningly saccharine and codgeringly sentimental, including myself. With so many things about Christmas to hate or be annoyed by, Gremlins basically tears the entire holiday apart, using the little monsters' rampage to put a huge black cloud over the idea that Christmas brings joy to everyone. Though people had already attributed that to the Christmas slasher movies like Christmas Evil, Black Christmas, and Silent Night-Deadly Night, Gremlins was the only one to actually target the holiday directly. Which can be best seen in the sequence when Zach Galligan says, "I always thought everyone was happy" and Phoebe Cates gives him a rather rude awakening. But that's not the only rude awakening the movie has in store.
Gremlins could also be using the gremlin monsters as a metaphor for how commercialism and consumerism sometimes... well, to use the popular phrase, "created a monster." And even though that's been done before - especially in George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead and Larry Cohen's The Stuff - neither of those films delivered as much wonderful chaos and disaster as Gremlins. Which gleefully shows the creatures demolishing the entire "Postcard" town of Kingston Falls. No one is spared in the rampage. And several people die. Which of course gives the film a sense of reality too.
The final film was drastically changed from Chris Colombus's original script. And tragically, several very gory scenes were tossed. Things that would have made the film even more shocking than it already was. One was a gag / joke, in the scene where Kate was originally supposed to have her "why I hate Christmas" speech, which was going to be after Billy and Kate went into a McDonalds' restaurant to find whole tables where none of the food had been touched. The burgers weren't eaten...but the people had been. Other scenes that were cut or changed include 2 deaths that were changed - Billy's mother and his dog Barney - and the original death of the science teacher, Mr. Hanson, who was supposed to die by having a ton of hypodermic needles sticking out of his face (ala- Basket Case).
And even though the film was changed, it's still quite a ride. No other director could have made such an interesting visual pun/gag as a handicapped character everyone hates whose motorized chair has an "Eject"or's seat (yeah I remember the scene, it was rigged, but the joke still works). Not to mention the infamous Kitchen Massacre scene is infamous for a reason. ;D
Gremlins 2 was a sequel that happened 6 years after the original. Thankfully, Warner Bros. never made a sequel without Joe as a director. Which would have been very disrespectful to Joe and the original movie. Though of course, the reason actually had nothing to do with faithfulness and all to do with the difficulty of getting another script to work. No one else could do it, Warner knew they needed Joe Dante. And Joe, as a very intelligent individual knew to resist the pressure of a sequel. But also, his films had been floundering a bit. Innerspace became successful long after it was released in theaters, initially it was a bit of a bomb and only the actors became famous (Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid), then The 'Burbs was a consomate bomb in every way, and Explorers was screwed up completely by the studio who forced it into theaters before editing had been completed. So, nothing was working out as well as it could have been.
Warner Bros. finally made him an offer - do whatever you want. And he took them up on their offer, found a great script by Charlie Haas (apparently that's also the name of a professional wrestler - not the same guy, folks) that confined all the chaos and disaster within a huge highrise building (with over 70 floors - is that possible??).
Joe Dante fashioned it after something I've never heard of called Hellzapoppin.
from Tiny Toon Adventures was from)? Well, I guess it was a lot like that. But since Joe Dante is also a great admirer of animation (and wanted to be a cartoonist before he became a critic and a filmmaker), it could also have been influenced by Porky in Wackyland (a cartoon for the Looney Toons series, which much the same theme, I imagine) that also featured a character that looked just like Gogo.But anyway, Dante's Gremlins 2 as this Hellzapoppin' influenced film was, if you count onscreen manic energy as quality, better than the first film. But it was a fully realized original vision of Dante's, so it's like the ultimate Gremlins film. A vision that still managed to be horrific and scary- but wholly amusing at the same time. There is literally nothing this sequel won't do, no place it won't go. Even though much of what you see are gags, the film serves up so many of them that... good luck catching your breath. A lot of excitement.
Not to mention that the Gremlins themselves look much better this time around than in the original. Although Chris Walas designed the gremlins in the first movie and then won an OSCAR right after the film for David Cronenberg's The Fly, he didn't have the proper amount of time to fully realize his vision of how the gremlins and their cocoons / eggs should look (on the DVD audio commentary, he reminisces about his amazing vision for the original scene of the litter of mogwai discovered to have become giant eggs/cocoons the morning after they ate after midnight- and you get the idea that what he planned would have looked incredible), and the entire design of the mogwai's and gremlin monsters was rushed through production because of a tighter schedule than he needed.
For this sequel, none other than Rick Baker (who won the OSCAR for American Werewolf in London) and his team designed the gremlins and, naturally, they look TERRIFYING! Here's the best picture I could find:
The eyes aren't right, but still you get a good idea if you haven't seen the movie. And if you haven't seen it... what are you waiting for?
It's been known to happen.
