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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to commit their entire holdings into preserved goods and firearms.” This piece of wise counsel comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, speaking, bespectacled member of the slick creature crowd that overruns Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On the surface, it’s merely an portfolio pointer from one monster to another. However, oddly enough, it’s also remarkably sound life guidance. Honestly, hear me out.

When things go bad, the biggest mistake you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. Actually, the majority of the dentally-gifted beasts that populate Dante’s wild 1990 film (debateably his greatest) possess the same knowing, self-referential sense of humour regarding the blurry line separating daily routine and pure pandemonium. It’s one element of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and with the passage of time, it’s the theme that strikes the deepest chord.

A Childhood Fixation

Of course, my connection with this movie wasn’t born on such an philosophical plane. Growing up, we were limited to a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its second chapter, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve almost certainly acquired from an off-brand video shop and sporting growling monsters on its tattered front. I was immediately enamoured and these films quickly proceeded lodging themselves inside my tiny, impressionable mind. From then on, they became an practically routine part of my youthful watching schedule.

Dante’s original commonly garners all the plaudits, thanks largely to its legacy as a semi-scary seasonal fave – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins more times than I can count. Nevertheless, its successor rarely gets the same level of elevated esteem, which feels criminal. As a kid, I’d invariably jump at the prospect to watch Gremlins 2. During bright summer vacations, I’d lock myself inside and pop it in. When I acquired my personal TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. Over time, it became deeply rooted in my mindset. If my parents noticed this obsession, they appeared unbothered.

Deeper Rewards and Cultural Nuggets

As I got older, new revelations enriched multiple watches, elevating the fun of watching small emerald creatures gleefully trash a New York high-rise. I learned the ahead-of-its-time property magnate and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was inspired directly by the eventual commander-in-chief Donald Trump, with his red-headed employee Marla (Haviland Morris) alluding to his one-time partner Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his actual-world equivalent.

The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during maximum monster mayhem? I discovered it was inspired by a real-life “Doomsday” video created by the CNN boss Ted Turner as a contingency for the world really ended. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film different iterations of a meta sequence where Gremlins seize control of the very film you’re watching. An edit for movie houses, one for VHS and TV, each delivering a smirking slice of self-referential entertainment sorcery ahead of its time.

A Persistent Legacy

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s fantastically vile creatures that drew my gaze as a child, this subsurface richness kept me hooked as an adult. In time, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no qualms informing me he made the movie with the specific aim of poking fun at those who loved its absurd-yet-genuine predecessor and wanted more. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he cheerfully disclosed. This cartoonish rebelliousness and resolve 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 unexpected loss in the family earlier this year, I was astonished to realize that, during my deepest grief, all I wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Possibly not. The soothing reminiscence it offered was needed to thin out my mind’s grief morass – but the insights it had given me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s some things in life you just are powerless over. Dante is aware of it. The Brain Gremlin knows it too. Sometimes, you have to emulate them: welcome the pandemonium, commit your entire being into canned food and shotguns and try not to view the world with undue solemnity.

It’s powerful existential guidance from a highly unexpected fountain – and it’s why Gremlins 2: The New Batch will forever remain my feelgood film.