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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. We’re advising all of our clients to put everything they’ve got into canned food and shotguns.” This nugget of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, articulate, bespectacled member of the oozy monster mob that infests Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in director Joe Dante’s zany follow-up Gremlins 2: The New Batch. At first glance, it’s simply an financial suggestion from one monster to another. But, oddly enough, it’s also surprisingly sturdy life advice. Seriously, consider my perspective.

When situations deteriorate, the most counterproductive action you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. In fact, a large portion of the fang-bearing creatures that occupy Dante’s chaotic 1990 feature (debateably his greatest) possess the same sly, self-aware funny bone regarding the hazy boundary separating the mundane and absolute bedlam. It’s a particular aspect of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that keeps me coming back – and the older I get, it’s the underlying idea that echoes the loudest.

An Early Life Fixation

Of course, my attachment to this movie didn’t start on such an introspective level. Growing up, we were limited to a few well-worn videocassettes at home. Among them were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a chunky ex-rental box likely purchased from an off-brand video shop and featuring growling monsters on its knackered cover. I was immediately enamoured and these films wasted no time embedding themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. Henceforth, they became an almost-daily part of my youthful watching schedule.

Dante’s first film usually receives all the plaudits, thanks primarily due to its reputation as a semi-scary seasonal fave – and let me be clear, I’ve watched Gremlins on countless occasions. That said, its follow-up seldom receives the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d always seize the chance to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d lock myself inside and pop it in. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. Gradually, it became deeply rooted in my mental framework. If my parents noticed this obsession, they appeared unbothered.

Hidden Delights and Societal Easter Eggs

As I got older, new insights enhanced multiple watches, heightening the enjoyment of watching diminutive verdant beasts gleefully trash a New York high-rise. I learned the future-focused property magnate and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was modeled closely on the eventual commander-in-chief Donald Trump, with his red-headed employee Marla (Haviland Morris) referencing his one-time partner Marla Maples. Luckily, Clamp has more heart than his genuine article inspiration.

The “end of civilisation” video Clamp plays during peak-Gremlin chaos? I discovered it was modeled after a actual “Doomsday” video produced by the CNN boss Ted Turner as a contingency for the world really ended. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film alternate cuts of a self-aware scene where Gremlins seize control of 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 ahead of its time.

A Lasting Appeal

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s fantastically vile creatures that caught my eye as a child, this hidden treasure kept me hooked as an adult. In time, I even conversed with Dante about it myself and he had no hesitation informing me he made the movie with the specific aim of ridiculing 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 gleefully confessed. This anarchic 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 went through a abrupt familial death not long ago, I was astonished to realize that, during my heightest mourning, all I felt compelled to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Possibly not. The comforting familiarity it provided was necessary to weaken my mind’s mourning mire – but the stuff it had given me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins tearing apart a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects in life you just cannot manage. Dante is aware of it. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to follow their example: accept the turmoil, commit your entire being into preserved goods and firearms and try not to approach life with excessive gravity.

It’s strong life advice from a very unlikely source – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will eternally stand as my feelgood film.