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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to put everything they’ve got into tinned provisions and hunting rifles.” That bit of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, talking, spectacled member of the slick creature crowd that overruns Manhattan’s super-smart Clamp Tower skyscraper in helmer Joe Dante’s unhinged continuation Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s merely an financial suggestion from one monster to another. But, in a strange manner, it’s also pretty solid life guidance. Honestly, hear me out.

When life takes a turn for the worse, the worst thing you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. Actually, a large portion of the toothy monsters that inhabit Dante’s wild 1990 film (possibly his finest) possess the same sly, self-aware sense of humour regarding the hazy boundary separating everyday life 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 resonates the most.

A Youthful Fixation

Naturally, my fondness for this movie wasn’t born on such an deeply thoughtful note. As a child, we possessed merely a few battered VHS tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a bulky previously-rented case almost certainly acquired from an independent video outlet and featuring snarling creatures on its worn-out artwork. I was right away smitten and these films wasted no time lodging themselves inside my tiny, impressionable mind. After that point, they became an near-everyday part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s original commonly garners all the accolades, thanks mostly because of its reputation as a moderately spooky festive favorite – and let me be clear, I’ve watched Gremlins more times than I can count. That said, its sequel seldom receives the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels unjust. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During long summer holidays, I’d lock myself inside and stick it on. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. Gradually, it ingrained itself in my mental framework. If my parents noticed this obsession, they didn’t seem to mind.

Deeper Rewards and Pop-Culture Nuggets

As I got older, new understandings enriched repeat viewings, elevating the fun of watching small emerald creatures joyously wreck a New York high-rise. I learned the future-focused development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was modeled closely on the later-to-be-president Donald Trump, with his red-headed employee Marla (Haviland Morris) referencing his second wife Marla Maples. Thankfully, Clamp possesses greater compassion than his real-life counterpart.

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 in case the world actually met its demise. I noticed how Dante took extra pains to film different iterations of a meta sequence where Gremlins seize control of the exact movie you are viewing. A version for theaters, a separate one for tape and broadcast, each providing a grinning portion of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy ahead of its time.

A Lasting Legacy

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that captured my attention as a child, this subsurface richness maintained my fascination as an adult. Ultimately, I even conversed with Dante about it myself and he had no reservations revealing to me he made the movie with the specific aim 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 gleefully confessed. This Looney Tunes-esque defiance and resolve to not take his sequel as gravely as his Warner Bros bosses obviously desired, only made me love it even more.

When I went through a unexpected loss in the family earlier this year, I was taken aback to discover that, during my deepest grief, all I felt compelled to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Possibly not. The soothing reminiscence it provided was needed to dilute my mind’s mourning mire – but the perspectives it had imparted to me as an adult were equally valuable.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s certain elements in life you just cannot manage. Dante knows it. The Brain Gremlin knows it too. Sometimes, you have to follow their example: embrace the chaos, commit your entire being into tinned provisions and hunting rifles and try not to approach life with excessive gravity.

It’s strong life advice from a most improbable origin – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will always be my go-to cinematic solace.