The Gremlins franchise is more than just a collection of entertaining yet scary movies for kids, it also paved the way for many monster movies thanks to its success. But, director Joe Dante believes there are some truly awful copycat versions out there and he’s not afraid to name and shame.
After the original ‘80s movie proved to be so popular among audiences young and old, many genre filmmakers decided they wanted to have a go at creating similarly creepy critters. Like many things, the original Gremlins movie just couldn’t be beaten, which means there is an array of pretty dire mini monster flicks out there.
Speaking to ComicBook.com, Dante picked out the worst movies that attempted to replicate what he built, and we have to say he’s right.
“Hobgoblins is pretty bad. To be fair. Everybody was trying to do what we were doing on less money. And I think Critters is probably the best one because it’s got the Chiodo Brothers… they’re very talented guys. But the editor of Gremlins was Tina Hirsch and she directed Munchies, the first Munchies movie and… talk about a low budget movie,” Dante said.
“I mean, they couldn’t afford really any monsters. So the monsters are like clothing remnants. They don’t seem to have any heads or tails or anything. It’s just a bunch of clothing wrapped up and thrown at people. It was just not good,” he added.
This is exactly the kind of trend you see time and time again, where new movies hope to ride the wave of success another film has set into motion. A plethora of shark movies wanted to copy Jaws back in the day, countless alien movies and science fiction movies have walked the same path as Alien and Blade Runner, and now, superhero movies are trying to get a slice of the MCU pie.
Most of the time, the first movies are the best movies, but it’s fun to watch people try all the same. While we’re on the topic of monsters, why not check out our guide to the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie release date or the Renfield 2 release date.