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“Well, the situation is pretty dire here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to put everything they’ve got into canned food and shotguns.” This piece of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, speaking, bespectacled member of the oozy monster mob that overruns Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in helmer Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s nothing more than an financial suggestion from one monster to another. Yet, oddly enough, it’s also remarkably sound existential counsel. Honestly, listen to my reasoning.

When things go bad, the biggest mistake you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. Actually, a large portion of the fang-bearing creatures that occupy Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (possibly his finest) possess the same wry, meta funny bone regarding the hazy boundary separating everyday life and pure pandemonium. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that keeps me coming back – and the older I get, it’s the underlying idea that strikes the deepest chord.

An Early Life Obsession

Understandably, my fondness for this movie wasn’t born on such an introspective level. In my youth, we only had a few well-worn videocassettes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its sequel, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve likely purchased from an non-chain rental store and boasting growling monsters on its worn-out artwork. I was immediately enamoured and these films quickly proceeded embedding themselves inside my tiny, impressionable mind. Henceforth, they became an near-everyday part of my early years entertainment regimen.

Dante’s first film typically gets all the plaudits, thanks largely to its status as a partly frightening holiday classic – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. Nevertheless, its follow-up seldom receives the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels a travesty. 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 obtained my very own TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. Gradually, it ingrained itself in my mindset. If my parents detected this preoccupation, they gave no indication of concern.

Deeper Rewards and Pop-Culture Easter Eggs

As I got older, new revelations enriched multiple watches, amplifying the pleasure of watching diminutive verdant beasts joyously wreck a New York high-rise. I learned the ahead-of-its-time development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was modeled closely on future president Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) referencing his second wife Marla Maples. Thankfully, Clamp has more heart than his real-life counterpart.

The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during maximum monster mayhem? I discovered it was inspired by a genuine “Doomsday” video commissioned by the CNN boss Ted Turner in case the world truly faced apocalypse. 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 offering a winking bit of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy before the term was even a thing.

An Enduring Appeal

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s fantastically vile creatures that captured my attention as a child, this deeper gold held my interest as an adult. Eventually, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no reservations 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 insubordination and commitment to not take his sequel as gravely as his Warner Bros bosses obviously desired, only made me love it even more.

When I endured a sudden family bereavement recently, I was astonished to realize that, during my deepest grief, all I wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Strange, isn’t it? Maybe not. The soothing reminiscence it provided was needed to weaken my mind’s grief morass – but the stuff it had imparted to me as an adult were just as useful.

Like Gremlins running amok in a genetics laboratory, there’s certain elements in life you just can’t control. Dante is aware of it. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to be like them: embrace the chaos, invest all your resources into canned food and shotguns and try not to approach life with excessive gravity.

It’s strong life advice from a most improbable origin – and it’s why Gremlins 2: The New Batch will forever remain my comfort movie.