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“Well, conditions are quite harsh here. Our recommendation is all of our clients to put everything they’ve got into canned food and shotguns.” This piece of shrewd guidance comes from the Brain Gremlin – a genetically modified, articulate, bespectacled member of the slimy Gremlin horde that infests Manhattan’s ultra-modern Clamp Tower skyscraper in director Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s simply an investment tip from one monster to another. However, curiously, it’s also surprisingly sturdy life guidance. Seriously, hear me out.

When things go bad, the biggest mistake you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin comprehends this. Actually, most of the fang-bearing creatures that occupy Dante’s wild 1990 film (debateably his greatest) possess the same wry, meta sense of humour regarding the indistinct border separating the mundane 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 strikes the deepest chord.

An Early Life Obsession

Understandably, my connection with this movie wasn’t born on such an deeply thoughtful note. In my youth, we possessed merely a few battered VHS tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its sequel, the latter housed in a bulky previously-rented case probably bought from an independent video outlet and boasting grimacing beasts on its knackered cover. I was immediately enamoured and these films quickly proceeded lodging themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. After that point, they became an near-everyday part of my early years entertainment regimen.

Dante’s first film commonly garners all the praise, thanks primarily due to its reputation as a semi-scary seasonal fave – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins on countless occasions. However, its sequel infrequently obtains the same level of high regard, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, 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. With repetition, it etched itself permanently in my mindset. If my parents observed this fixation, they didn’t seem to mind.

Hidden Rewards and Societal Easter Eggs

As I grew, new understandings rewarded multiple watches, amplifying the pleasure of watching little green monsters gleefully trash a New York high-rise. I learned the ahead-of-its-time development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was inspired directly by future president Donald Trump, with his red-headed employee Marla (Haviland Morris) referencing his second wife Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp has more heart than his actual-world equivalent.

The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during the height of creature carnage? I discovered it was based on a real-life “Doomsday” video commissioned by the CNN boss Ted Turner as a contingency for the world actually met its demise. I noticed how Dante made a special effort to film varying versions of a meta sequence where Gremlins hijack the exact movie you are viewing. A version for theaters, another for home video and television, each delivering a smirking slice of meta pop-culture magic before the term was even a thing.

An Enduring Influence

While it was makeup maestro Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that drew my gaze as a child, this deeper gold kept me hooked as an adult. Eventually, I even interviewed Dante about it myself and he had no qualms revealing to me he made the movie with the specific aim of poking fun at those who loved its goofy-but-heartfelt predecessor and wanted more. “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 gravely as his Warner Bros bosses clearly wanted him to, only made me love it even more.

When I experienced a sudden family bereavement recently, I was taken aback to discover that, during my heightest mourning, all I felt compelled to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Odd, no? Maybe not. The comforting familiarity it furnished was necessary to dilute my mind’s grief morass – but the stuff it had imparted to me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s certain elements in life you just are powerless over. Dante understands this. The Brain Gremlin knows it too. Sometimes, you have to be like them: embrace the chaos, invest all your resources into canned food and shotguns 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 always be my go-to cinematic solace.