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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. We’re advising all of our clients to invest all their resources into canned food and shotguns.” This piece of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, talking, bespectacled member of the slimy Gremlin horde that overruns Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s zany follow-up Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On the surface, it’s nothing more than an financial suggestion from one monster to another. Yet, oddly enough, it’s also surprisingly sturdy life advice. Truly, listen to my reasoning.

When things go bad, the biggest mistake you can do is view events with undue solemnity. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. In fact, most of the dentally-gifted beasts that populate Dante’s wild 1990 film (arguably his best) possess the same knowing, self-referential sense of humour regarding the hazy boundary separating everyday life and unadulterated chaos. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and the older I get, it’s the underlying idea that resonates the most.

An Early Life Fixation

Naturally, my connection with this movie did not begin on such an philosophical plane. As a child, we possessed merely a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a chunky ex-rental box probably bought from an non-chain rental store and boasting growling monsters on its knackered cover. I was instantly captivated and these films wasted no time embedding themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. Henceforth, they became an near-everyday part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s original usually receives all the praise, thanks primarily due to its reputation as a partly frightening holiday classic – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. Nevertheless, its successor rarely gets the same level of high regard, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During bright summer vacations, I’d retreat into the house and stick it on. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it stayed in constant rotation in my bedroom. Gradually, it ingrained itself in my psyche. If my parents noticed this obsession, they didn’t seem to mind.

Subtler Rewards and Pop-Culture References

As I grew, new insights enhanced repeat viewings, heightening the enjoyment of watching little green monsters gleefully trash a New York high-rise. I learned the forward-thinking development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was based squarely upon future president Donald Trump, with his ginger staff member Marla (Haviland Morris) referencing his one-time partner Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp has more heart than his actual-world equivalent.

The “apocalyptic” video Clamp plays during maximum monster mayhem? I discovered it was inspired by a actual “Doomsday” video created by the CNN boss Ted Turner in case the world really ended. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film alternate cuts of a meta sequence where Gremlins hijack the actual feature in progress. One for cinemas, a separate one for tape and broadcast, each offering a winking bit of self-referential entertainment sorcery before the term was even a thing.

A Persistent Appeal

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s fantastically vile creatures that captured my attention as a child, this hidden treasure kept me hooked as an adult. In time, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no reservations informing me he made the movie with the direct intention of ridiculing those who loved its absurd-yet-genuine predecessor and craved further installments. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he happily revealed. This Looney Tunes-esque rebelliousness and commitment to not take his sequel as gravely as his Warner Bros bosses clearly wanted him to, only increased my affection for it.

When I went through a unexpected loss in the family not long ago, I was surprised to find that, during my most profound sorrow, all I wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Odd, no? Perhaps not. The soothing reminiscence it furnished was necessary to dilute my mind’s mourning mire – but the stuff it had bestowed upon me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins tearing apart a genetics laboratory, there’s some things in life you just are powerless over. Dante is aware of it. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to be like them: accept the turmoil, put everything you’ve got into preserved goods and firearms and try not to view the world with undue solemnity.

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