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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to invest all their resources into canned food and shotguns.” This piece of wise counsel comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, speaking, spectacled member of the slimy Gremlin horde that overruns Manhattan’s ultra-modern Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s nothing more than an financial suggestion from one monster to another. But, in a strange manner, it’s also remarkably sound life guidance. Honestly, listen to my reasoning.

When things go bad, the most counterproductive action you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. In fact, a large portion of the dentally-gifted beasts that occupy Dante’s wild 1990 film (debateably his greatest) possess the same knowing, self-referential comic sensibility regarding the hazy boundary separating the mundane and absolute bedlam. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and as I age, it’s the message that resonates the most.

A Childhood Fixation

Understandably, my connection with this movie did not begin on such an philosophical plane. In my youth, we were limited to a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Among them were Gremlins and its sequel, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve probably bought from an non-chain rental store and sporting grimacing beasts on its knackered cover. I was immediately enamoured and these films quickly proceeded embedding themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. Henceforth, they became an near-everyday part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s initial installment typically gets all the accolades, thanks primarily due to its legacy as a partly frightening holiday classic – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins more times than I can count. That said, its successor rarely gets the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During bright summer vacations, I’d lock myself inside and play it. When I acquired my personal TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. With repetition, it etched itself permanently in my mental framework. If my parents observed this fixation, they didn’t seem to mind.

Deeper Rewards and Societal References

As I matured, new revelations enhanced multiple watches, heightening the enjoyment of watching little green monsters joyously wreck a New York high-rise. I learned the future-focused development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was based squarely upon future president Donald Trump, with his red-headed employee Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his one-time partner Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his real-life counterpart.

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 as a contingency for the world really ended. I noticed how Dante took extra pains to film alternate cuts of a meta sequence where Gremlins hijack the exact movie you are viewing. An edit for movie houses, one for VHS and TV, each providing a grinning portion of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy ahead of its time.

A Persistent Influence

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s wonderfully grotesque creatures that captured my attention as a child, this deeper gold maintained my fascination as an adult. Ultimately, I even conversed with Dante about it myself and he had no hesitation telling me he made the movie with the specific aim of poking fun at 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 cartoonish rebelliousness and commitment to not take his sequel as seriously as his Warner Bros bosses evidently expected, only increased my affection for it.

When I experienced a unexpected loss in the family earlier this year, I was astonished to realize that, during my heightest mourning, all I wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Maybe not. The nostalgic calm it offered was necessary to dilute my mind’s sadness sludge – but the stuff it had bestowed upon 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 knows it. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to emulate them: accept the turmoil, commit your entire being into canned food and shotguns and try not to approach life with excessive gravity.

It’s powerful existential guidance from a highly unexpected fountain – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will eternally stand as my comfort movie.