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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. Our recommendation is all of our clients to commit their entire holdings into preserved goods and firearms.” This piece of wise counsel comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, speaking, glasses-wearing member of the slick creature crowd that swarms Manhattan’s ultra-modern Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s simply an investment tip from one monster to another. Yet, curiously, it’s also remarkably sound life guidance. Truly, hear me out.

When life takes a turn for the worse, the most counterproductive action you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin comprehends this. Actually, a large portion of the fang-bearing creatures that inhabit Dante’s wild 1990 film (arguably his best) possess the same knowing, self-referential sense of humour regarding the hazy boundary separating daily routine and unadulterated chaos. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and as I age, it’s the theme that resonates the most.

An Early Life Obsession

Understandably, my fondness for this movie wasn’t born on such an philosophical plane. In my youth, we only had a few battered VHS tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its second chapter, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve likely purchased from an non-chain rental store and boasting snarling creatures on its knackered cover. I was immediately enamoured and these films did not delay embedding themselves inside my small, malleable brain. From then on, they became an practically routine part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s original commonly garners all the accolades, thanks mostly because of its reputation as a partly frightening holiday classic – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. That said, its successor rarely gets the same level of high regard, which feels criminal. 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 acquired my personal TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. Over time, it etched itself permanently in my psyche. If my parents noticed this obsession, they appeared unbothered.

Subtler Rewards and Cultural Easter Eggs

As I matured, new revelations enhanced repeat viewings, amplifying the pleasure 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 inspired directly by the eventual commander-in-chief Donald Trump, with his ginger staff member Marla (Haviland Morris) alluding to his former spouse Marla Maples. Luckily, Clamp possesses greater compassion than his genuine article inspiration.

The “apocalyptic” video Clamp plays during the height of creature carnage? I discovered it was modeled after a real-life “Doomsday” video commissioned by the CNN boss Ted Turner in case the world actually met its demise. I noticed how Dante took extra pains to film alternate cuts of a meta sequence where Gremlins seize control of the very film you’re watching. A version for theaters, a separate one for tape and broadcast, each providing a grinning portion of meta pop-culture magic before the term was even a thing.

An Enduring Influence

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that drew my gaze as a child, this hidden treasure maintained my fascination as an adult. Eventually, I even interviewed Dante about it myself and he had no hesitation telling me he made the movie with the specific aim of ridiculing those who loved its silly-yet-sincere predecessor and craved further installments. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he happily revealed. This cartoonish defiance and resolve to not take his sequel as solemnly as his Warner Bros bosses clearly wanted him to, only increased my affection for it.

When I went through a sudden family bereavement recently, I was astonished to realize that, during my deepest grief, all I desired to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Odd, no? Possibly not. The nostalgic calm it furnished was necessary to thin out my mind’s mourning mire – but the stuff it had bestowed upon me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s some things 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, commit your entire being into canned food and shotguns and try not to view the world with undue solemnity.

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