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“Well, conditions are quite harsh here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to commit their entire holdings into canned food and shotguns.” That bit of shrewd guidance comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, articulate, glasses-wearing member of the oozy monster mob that infests Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in helmer Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s simply an investment tip from one monster to another. Yet, in a strange manner, it’s also pretty solid life guidance. Honestly, hear me out.

When life takes a turn for the worse, the worst thing you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. Actually, a large portion of the fang-bearing creatures that populate Dante’s chaotic 1990 feature (arguably his best) possess the same wry, meta sense of humour regarding the hazy boundary separating daily routine and pure pandemonium. It’s one element of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that keeps me coming back – and with the passage of time, it’s the theme that echoes the loudest.

An Early Life Fixation

Naturally, my fondness for this movie wasn’t born on such an introspective level. As a child, we possessed merely a few well-worn videocassettes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its sequel, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve almost certainly acquired from an non-chain rental store and featuring grimacing beasts on its worn-out artwork. I was immediately enamoured and these films wasted no time embedding themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. Henceforth, they became an practically routine part of my early years entertainment regimen.

Dante’s first film typically gets 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. Nevertheless, its successor infrequently obtains the same level of elevated esteem, which feels criminal. As a kid, I’d invariably jump at the prospect to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d seclude myself indoors and play it. When I acquired my personal TV-VHS combo unit, it remained on repeat in my bedroom. With repetition, it became deeply rooted in my psyche. If my parents detected this preoccupation, they didn’t seem to mind.

Hidden Delights and Societal Nuggets

As I matured, new insights enhanced repeat viewings, heightening the enjoyment of watching small emerald creatures joyously wreck a New York high-rise. I learned the future-focused development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was modeled closely on the later-to-be-president Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his second wife Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp has more heart than his actual-world equivalent.

The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during the height of creature carnage? I discovered it was inspired by a real-life “Doomsday” video commissioned by the CNN boss Ted Turner should the world truly faced apocalypse. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film varying versions of a self-aware scene where Gremlins hijack the exact movie you are viewing. An edit for movie houses, one for VHS and TV, each offering a winking bit of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy ahead of its time.

A Lasting Legacy

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s fantastically vile creatures that caught my eye as a child, this subsurface richness maintained my fascination as an adult. Eventually, I even conversed with Dante about it myself and he had no hesitation informing me he made the movie with the direct intention of poking fun at those who loved its goofy-but-heartfelt predecessor and craved further installments. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he happily revealed. This anarchic defiance and commitment to not take his sequel as gravely as his Warner Bros bosses obviously desired, only increased my affection for it.

When I went through a abrupt familial death recently, 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? Maybe not. The soothing reminiscence it provided was needed to thin out my mind’s sadness sludge – but the stuff it had bestowed upon me as an adult were equally valuable.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s some things in life you just cannot manage. Dante knows it. The Brain Gremlin shares this wisdom. Sometimes, you have to be like them: accept the turmoil, put everything you’ve got into canned food and shotguns and try not to view the world with undue solemnity.

It’s strong life advice from a highly unexpected fountain – and it’s why Gremlins 2: The New Batch will forever remain my feelgood film.