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“Well, the situation is pretty dire here. We’re advising all of our clients to put everything they’ve got into preserved goods and firearms.” This nugget of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, speaking, glasses-wearing member of the oozy monster mob that infests Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in helmer Joe Dante’s zany follow-up Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On the surface, it’s nothing more than an investment tip from one monster to another. However, in a strange manner, it’s also surprisingly sturdy existential counsel. Seriously, consider my perspective.

When situations deteriorate, the worst thing you can do is view events with undue solemnity. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. In fact, the majority of the dentally-gifted beasts that inhabit Dante’s wild 1990 film (debateably his greatest) possess the same wry, meta funny bone regarding the blurry line separating everyday life and pure pandemonium. It’s a particular aspect of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that maintains my loyalty – and the older I get, it’s the theme that strikes the deepest chord.

A Childhood Fascination

Of course, my fondness for this movie didn’t start on such an deeply thoughtful note. Growing up, we were limited to a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Among them were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve almost certainly acquired from an non-chain rental store and sporting snarling creatures on its knackered cover. I was immediately enamoured and these films quickly proceeded lodging themselves inside my tiny, impressionable mind. After that point, they became an almost-daily part of my early years entertainment regimen.

Dante’s original commonly garners all the praise, thanks largely to its legacy as a partly frightening holiday classic – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins on countless occasions. That said, its sequel seldom receives the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels criminal. As a kid, I’d always seize the chance to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d seclude myself indoors and pop it in. When I obtained my very own TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. With repetition, it ingrained itself in my mental framework. If my parents observed this fixation, they didn’t seem to mind.

Deeper Discoveries and Pop-Culture References

As I grew, new understandings enriched repeat viewings, heightening the enjoyment of watching little green monsters gleefully trash a New York high-rise. I learned the forward-thinking property magnate and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was based squarely upon the eventual commander-in-chief Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) alluding to his former spouse Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp possesses greater compassion than his real-life counterpart.

The “apocalyptic” 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 in case the world truly faced apocalypse. I noticed how Dante took extra pains to film varying versions of a meta sequence where Gremlins hijack the very film you’re watching. An edit for movie houses, a separate one for tape and broadcast, each providing a grinning portion of self-referential entertainment sorcery prior to the concept being mainstream.

A Persistent Legacy

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that drew my gaze as a child, this hidden treasure maintained my fascination as an adult. Ultimately, I even conversed with Dante about it myself and he had no hesitation revealing to me he made the movie with the express purpose of ridiculing those who loved its absurd-yet-genuine predecessor and desired a sequel. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he happily revealed. This cartoonish insubordination and determination to not take his sequel as gravely as his Warner Bros bosses evidently expected, only made me love it even more.

When I went through a abrupt familial death recently, I was taken aback to discover that, during my heightest mourning, all I wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Perhaps not. The soothing reminiscence it furnished was needed to thin out my mind’s sadness sludge – but the perspectives it had given 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 understands this. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to be like them: welcome the pandemonium, invest all your resources into preserved goods and firearms and try not to take things too seriously.

It’s robust worldly wisdom from a highly unexpected fountain – and it’s why Gremlins 2: The New Batch will forever remain my go-to cinematic solace.