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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to invest all their resources into preserved goods and firearms.” This piece of wise counsel comes from the Brain Gremlin – a genetically modified, talking, spectacled member of the slick creature crowd that infests Manhattan’s super-smart Clamp Tower skyscraper in helmer Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On the surface, it’s simply an portfolio pointer from one monster to another. However, in a strange manner, it’s also remarkably sound existential counsel. Truly, listen to my reasoning.

When situations deteriorate, the biggest mistake you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. In fact, most of the fang-bearing creatures that occupy Dante’s chaotic 1990 feature (debateably his greatest) possess the same knowing, self-referential funny bone regarding the hazy boundary separating the mundane and unadulterated chaos. It’s one element of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that maintains my loyalty – and with the passage of time, it’s the message that echoes the loudest.

An Early Life Fixation

Naturally, my connection with this movie wasn’t born on such an introspective level. As a child, we possessed merely a few well-worn videocassettes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve probably bought from an non-chain rental store and featuring grimacing beasts on its worn-out artwork. I was right away smitten and these films wasted no time lodging themselves inside my tiny, impressionable mind. Henceforth, they became an near-everyday part of my youthful watching schedule.

Dante’s original commonly garners all the plaudits, thanks largely to its status as a partly frightening holiday classic – and let me be clear, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. However, its sequel rarely gets the same level of high regard, which feels criminal. As a kid, I’d invariably jump at the prospect to watch Gremlins 2. During bright summer vacations, I’d retreat into the house and stick it on. When I acquired my personal TV-VHS combo unit, it remained on repeat in my bedroom. With repetition, it etched itself permanently in my psyche. If my parents observed this fixation, they didn’t seem to mind.

Hidden Delights and Societal References

As I got older, new revelations enhanced repeat viewings, amplifying the pleasure of watching little green monsters joyously wreck a New York high-rise. I learned the future-focused property magnate and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was based squarely upon the later-to-be-president Donald Trump, with his ginger staff member Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his former spouse Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his actual-world equivalent.

The “apocalyptic” video Clamp plays during the height of creature carnage? I discovered it was inspired by a real-life “Doomsday” video commissioned by the CNN boss Ted Turner as a contingency for the world truly faced apocalypse. I noticed how Dante took extra pains to film varying versions of a meta sequence where Gremlins seize control of the actual feature in progress. One for cinemas, a separate one for tape and broadcast, each delivering a smirking slice of meta pop-culture magic before the term was even a thing.

A Persistent Influence

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that caught my eye as a child, this hidden treasure held my interest as an adult. In time, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no hesitation revealing to me he made the movie with the specific aim of poking fun at those who loved its goofy-but-heartfelt predecessor and craved further installments. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he cheerfully disclosed. This cartoonish insubordination and resolve to not take his sequel as gravely as his Warner Bros bosses obviously desired, only increased my affection for it.

When I endured a unexpected loss in the family recently, I was taken aback to discover that, during my most profound sorrow, all I wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Perhaps not. The soothing reminiscence it furnished was necessary to thin out my mind’s grief morass – but the stuff it had imparted to me as an adult were equally valuable.

Like Gremlins running amok in a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects in life you just are powerless over. Dante knows it. The Brain Gremlin shares this wisdom. Sometimes, you have to follow their example: accept the turmoil, commit your entire being into canned food and shotguns and try not to take things too seriously.

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