After celebrating a milestone 40th anniversary in 2024, and with talk of a new movie being in development,Gremlinsseems to be a big talking point once again. Fans of theJoe Dante-directed comedy-horror Christmas movie are currently awaiting – not for the first time – a potential third movie in the franchise, but the director himself recently stirred up the memory of the much darker movie 1984’sGremlinsalmost becamebefore producer Steven Spielberg steered it in a slightly more family-friendly direction. As part of a new documentary on that subject, Dante has revealed a never-before-seen image of the kind of thing that audiences missed out on in what would have been an R-rated monster movie.
Gremlinsis a near-perfect movie, with a mix of comedy, horror, thrills, and that festive memory of kitchen murders and melting creature corpses – so cheery. However, if its PG-13 rating was pushed to the limit by the darker moments in the movie, then the scales would have been tipped into R-rated territory by some of the original ideas for the film. Even some moments that made it into test screenings were cut to secure a lower rating from the (then) MPAA, including a more elaborate death for teacher Glynn Turman.
TheYouTube documentaryHow Horror Created the PG-13features a look at some of the movies that pushed the ratings system to its limit, and the inclusion ofGremlinssaw director Dante providing creator Kyle Conley with a never released shot of the more brutal death scene of the science teacher who regrets his decision to give one of the Mogwai a “little scratch” when taking blood samples.
How Was ‘Gremlins’ Darker Cut Different to the Theatrical Version?
As seen in the documentary, there were some big changes made to how much of the aftermath of Turman’s death was seen on screen. In the cut we all know, the teacher is seen with a single syringe sticking out of his rear, with most of his body under a desk. As Dante explains in the video:
“The science teacher is one of the first victims of the Gremlins. He had previously upset one of the other Gremlins by poking him with a syringe. So the revenge that the Gremlins take on him is to stick him with a syringe. In the movie, it’s just sticking out of his rear end. But we shot a scene of his face covered in syringes. And it was very creepy. We shot that, it was in the preview [screening], and it was suggested that it would be better to not have that in the picture. I can’t regret anything not being in that movie.”
Other moments that proved to be just too risky to remain in the movie, include a closer look at the gremlin stabbed to death by Lynn Pelzer when it attacks her in her kitchen. In the movie, the gremlin is seen writhing around from a distance, but the original version saw a closer look at the dead gremlin being shown in the aftermath of the attack. While this, and other changes, do not make much difference to the story, the evolution of the movie into the film it became is one that is often interesting to look back on, especially when the man who made it is involved in the telling of the tale. Dante has said on multiple occasions that Steven Spielberg savedGremlins, and although some would still have been happy witha darker and more brutal end result, it is a sentiment that is hard to argue with.
