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“Well, conditions are quite harsh here. We’re advising all of our clients to commit their entire holdings into canned food and shotguns.” This piece of shrewd guidance comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, talking, glasses-wearing member of the slimy Gremlin horde that infests Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in director Joe Dante’s unhinged continuation Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On the surface, it’s simply an portfolio pointer from one monster to another. However, curiously, it’s also remarkably sound existential counsel. Truly, hear me out.

When situations deteriorate, the most counterproductive action you can do is view events with undue solemnity. The Brain Gremlin understands this. Actually, most of the fang-bearing creatures that occupy Dante’s chaotic 1990 feature (debateably his greatest) possess the same wry, meta comic sensibility regarding the indistinct border separating daily routine and absolute bedlam. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that keeps me coming back – and as I age, it’s the message that resonates the most.

An Early Life Fascination

Of course, my fondness for this movie didn’t start on such an introspective level. In my youth, we possessed merely a few battered VHS tapes at home. Among them were Gremlins and its sequel, the latter housed in a chunky ex-rental box probably bought from an non-chain rental store and sporting growling monsters on its knackered cover. I was right away smitten and these films did not delay lodging themselves inside my small, malleable brain. From then on, they became an near-everyday part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s original commonly garners all the plaudits, thanks mostly because of its status as a partly frightening holiday classic – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins on countless occasions. However, its sequel infrequently obtains the same level of high regard, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d seclude myself indoors and play it. When I obtained my very own TV-VHS combo unit, it stayed in constant rotation in my bedroom. With repetition, it ingrained itself in my psyche. If my parents observed this fixation, they appeared unbothered.

Deeper Delights and Pop-Culture Easter Eggs

As I grew, new understandings enriched multiple watches, elevating the fun of watching small emerald creatures joyously wreck a New York high-rise. I learned the forward-thinking real estate tycoon and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was based squarely upon the eventual commander-in-chief Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) alluding to his former spouse Marla Maples. Luckily, Clamp possesses greater compassion than his actual-world equivalent.

The “end of civilisation” video Clamp plays during maximum monster mayhem? I discovered it was modeled after a real-life “Doomsday” video commissioned by the CNN boss Ted Turner should the world really ended. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film different iterations of a self-referential segment where Gremlins hijack the very film you’re watching. One for cinemas, one for VHS and TV, each delivering a smirking slice of self-referential entertainment sorcery before the term was even a thing.

A Lasting Legacy

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s wonderfully grotesque creatures that captured my attention as a child, this hidden treasure maintained my fascination as an adult. In time, I even interviewed Dante about it myself and he had no qualms revealing to me he made the movie with the direct intention of mocking those who loved its goofy-but-heartfelt predecessor and wanted more. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he cheerfully disclosed. This Looney Tunes-esque defiance and determination to not take his sequel as seriously as his Warner Bros bosses evidently expected, only made me love it even more.

When I experienced a abrupt familial death recently, I was surprised to find that, during my deepest grief, all I felt compelled to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Strange, isn’t it? Possibly not. The soothing reminiscence it offered was essential to thin out my mind’s grief morass – but the perspectives it had imparted to me as an adult were just as useful.

Like Gremlins tearing apart a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects in life you just are powerless over. Dante understands this. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to follow their example: welcome the pandemonium, commit your entire being into tinned provisions and hunting rifles and try not to approach life with excessive gravity.

It’s robust worldly wisdom from a very unlikely source – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will always be my go-to cinematic solace.