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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. We’re advising all of our clients to commit their entire holdings into canned food and shotguns.” That bit of wise counsel comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, talking, spectacled member of the slick creature crowd that swarms Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in director Joe Dante’s zany follow-up Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On the surface, it’s simply an investment tip from one monster to another. However, in a strange manner, it’s also pretty solid life guidance. Seriously, hear me out.

When situations deteriorate, the most counterproductive action you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. Actually, a large portion of the fang-bearing creatures that occupy Dante’s chaotic 1990 feature (possibly his finest) possess the same wry, meta sense of humour regarding the indistinct border separating everyday life and pure pandemonium. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that maintains my loyalty – and the older I get, it’s the theme that echoes the loudest.

An Early Life Fixation

Of course, my attachment to this movie wasn’t born on such an philosophical plane. In my youth, we were limited to a few well-worn videocassettes at home. Part of that group were Gremlins and its sequel, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve probably bought from an non-chain rental store and sporting snarling creatures on its tattered front. I was immediately enamoured and these films wasted no time lodging themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. From then on, they became an near-everyday part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s initial installment typically gets all the plaudits, thanks mostly because of its reputation as a moderately spooky festive favorite – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins more times than I can count. That said, its sequel infrequently obtains the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels criminal. As a kid, I’d invariably jump at the prospect to watch Gremlins 2. During long summer holidays, I’d seclude myself indoors and play it. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. Over time, it ingrained itself in my mental framework. If my parents detected this preoccupation, they gave no indication of concern.

Subtler Discoveries and Societal Easter Eggs

As I got older, new insights enriched repeat viewings, heightening the enjoyment of watching little green monsters happily vandalize a New York high-rise. I learned the future-focused development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was inspired directly by future president Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his second wife Marla Maples. Luckily, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his genuine article inspiration.

The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during peak-Gremlin chaos? I discovered it was based on a real-life “Doomsday” video produced by the CNN boss Ted Turner as a contingency for the world truly faced apocalypse. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film varying versions of a meta sequence where Gremlins seize control of the very film you’re watching. An edit for movie houses, one for VHS and TV, each providing a grinning portion of self-referential entertainment sorcery before the term was even a thing.

An Enduring Appeal

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that caught my eye as a child, this subsurface richness kept me hooked as an adult. In time, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no qualms telling me he made the movie with the express purpose 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 cheerfully disclosed. This cartoonish defiance and determination to not take his sequel as seriously as his Warner Bros bosses clearly wanted him to, only made me love it even more.

When I experienced a sudden family bereavement earlier this year, I was surprised to find that, during my most profound sorrow, all I felt compelled to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Possibly not. The comforting familiarity it offered was essential to thin out my mind’s grief morass – but the perspectives it had given me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins running amok in a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects in life you just are powerless over. Dante knows it. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to follow their example: accept the turmoil, invest all your resources 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 forever remain my feelgood film.