A never-before-seen, 2-and-a-half-hour cut of Gremlins secretly screened late last week in Los Angeles, revealing much more gremlin chaos and extended character arcs were originally filmed for the beloved 1984 horror classic.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, an exclusive group of horror filmmakers — including Final Destination: Bloodlines directors Adam B. Stein and Zach Lipovsky, Ready or Not writer Guy Busick, and M3GAN screenwriter Akela Cooper — received a cryptic text message inviting them to a mysterious screening with the promise of watching “a movie no one has ever seen.”
“You will never forgive yourself [for missing it],” the text reportedly claimed.
That movie was a version of Joe Dante’s Gremlins not seen since 1983.
Previously believed for decades to be lost (or rumored to not exist at all), Dante admitted this year that the assembly cut he made in late 1983, which ran roughly an hour longer than the final film released in June 1984, was indeed real.
READ MORE: 20 Movies You Won’t Believe Are Rated PG
The filmmaker delivered the only known surviving cut, saved on his own personal VHS tape, to The Gremlins Museum, an online archive run by a fan named Ian Grant, who then spent months cleaning and digitizing the cut for public viewing.
Prior to the secret screening, which took place on April 30, Dante told the audience that the cut they were about to see, complete with “pencil marks and missing scenes,” per THR, was a rough version of his finished creature feature classic.
“This is a very unusual screening. You usually don’t go back into the archives and pull out stuff from the bin and show it to people, warts and all,” the director shared.
As for the version that screened, Dante’s assembly cut reportedly features a number of alternate takes and scrapped character arcs, including more scenes featuring Mrs. Deagle.
THR reports the “first Gremlin doesn’t even show up until an hour in.” The cut features extended scenes of gremlin chaos, including nearly 10 more minutes of footage of the bar scene, as well as additional footage of the department store and bank.
Perhaps most notably, the infamous Christmas speech Phoebe Cates delivers as Kate, isn’t included in the assembly cut.
In an Instagram Live Q&A last week, Gremlins star Zack Galligan called the cut an “absolute mind blower” and “an assembly of all the stuff that we shot back in 1983,” including “stuff I have absolutely no memory of having shot.”
He also shared that his character, Billy, comes off “more badass” in the initial cut.
Gremlins 3 is currently in development at Warner Bros., with Chris Columbus set to produce and direct, and Steven Spielberg attached to executive produce.
Gremlins 3 is currently scheduled for release on November 19, 2027.
