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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to invest all their resources into canned food and shotguns.” This piece of shrewd guidance comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, speaking, spectacled member of the oozy monster mob that infests Manhattan’s super-smart Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On the surface, it’s merely an investment tip from one monster to another. However, oddly enough, it’s also surprisingly sturdy existential counsel. Honestly, hear me out.

When things go bad, the biggest mistake you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin understands this. In fact, the majority of the fang-bearing creatures that inhabit Dante’s chaotic 1990 feature (possibly his finest) possess the same wry, meta funny bone regarding the indistinct border separating everyday life and absolute bedlam. It’s a particular aspect of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and with the passage of time, it’s the message that echoes the loudest.

A Childhood 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 follow-up, the latter housed in a bulky previously-rented case probably bought from an non-chain rental store and sporting snarling creatures on its knackered cover. I was immediately enamoured and these films quickly proceeded inserting themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. Henceforth, they became an almost-daily part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s original commonly garners all the plaudits, thanks primarily due to its reputation as a partly frightening holiday classic – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins on countless occasions. Nevertheless, its sequel infrequently obtains the same level of high regard, which feels criminal. As a kid, I’d always seize the chance to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d retreat into the house and stick it on. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. Over time, it became deeply rooted in my mindset. If my parents detected this preoccupation, they appeared unbothered.

Subtler Delights and Societal Easter Eggs

As I matured, new understandings rewarded frequent screenings, elevating the fun of watching diminutive verdant beasts happily vandalize a New York high-rise. I learned the forward-thinking real estate tycoon and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was modeled closely on the eventual commander-in-chief Donald Trump, with his red-headed employee Marla (Haviland Morris) alluding to his former spouse Marla Maples. Luckily, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his genuine article inspiration.

The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during the height of creature carnage? I discovered it was modeled after a actual “Doomsday” video produced by the CNN boss Ted Turner as a contingency for the world truly faced apocalypse. I noticed how Dante took extra pains to film different iterations of a self-aware scene where Gremlins take over the actual feature in progress. A version for theaters, one for VHS and TV, each providing a grinning portion of self-referential entertainment sorcery before the term was even a thing.

An Enduring Legacy

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that caught my eye as a child, this subsurface richness held my interest as an adult. In time, I even conversed with Dante about it myself and he had no qualms informing me he made the movie with the direct intention of mocking those who loved its silly-yet-sincere predecessor and craved further installments. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he happily revealed. This cartoonish defiance and determination to not take his sequel as solemnly as his Warner Bros bosses clearly wanted him to, only deepened my appreciation further.

When I went through a sudden family bereavement recently, I was taken aback to discover that, during my heightest mourning, all I wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Strange, isn’t it? Perhaps not. The soothing reminiscence it provided was necessary to thin out my mind’s sadness sludge – but the insights it had bestowed upon me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects in life you just can’t control. Dante knows it. The Brain Gremlin shares this wisdom. Sometimes, you have to be like them: welcome the pandemonium, commit your entire being into tinned provisions and hunting rifles and try not to view the world with undue solemnity.

It’s robust worldly wisdom from a very unlikely source – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will always be my comfort movie.