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“Well, the situation is pretty dire here. Our recommendation is all of our clients to invest all their resources into canned food and shotguns.” This piece of shrewd guidance comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, speaking, glasses-wearing member of the slick creature crowd that infests Manhattan’s super-smart Clamp Tower skyscraper in director Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s simply an financial suggestion from one monster to another. However, in a strange manner, it’s also surprisingly sturdy existential counsel. Truly, hear me out.

When situations deteriorate, the biggest mistake you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin comprehends this. In fact, a large portion of the dentally-gifted beasts that inhabit Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (possibly his finest) possess the same wry, meta comic sensibility regarding the hazy boundary separating the mundane and absolute bedlam. It’s one element of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that maintains my loyalty – and with the passage of time, it’s the underlying idea that strikes the deepest chord.

A Youthful Fascination

Of course, my attachment to this movie wasn’t born on such an deeply thoughtful note. In my youth, we only had a few battered VHS tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a bulky previously-rented case probably bought from an non-chain rental store and featuring grimacing beasts on its worn-out artwork. I was immediately enamoured and these films quickly proceeded inserting 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 praise, thanks primarily due to its status as a semi-scary seasonal fave – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins more times than I can count. Nevertheless, its successor rarely gets the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During bright summer vacations, I’d retreat into the house and play it. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it remained on repeat in my bedroom. With repetition, it etched itself permanently in my mental framework. If my parents observed this fixation, they gave no indication of concern.

Deeper Discoveries and Pop-Culture Nuggets

As I grew, new revelations enriched frequent screenings, amplifying the pleasure of watching small emerald creatures happily vandalize 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 eventual commander-in-chief Donald Trump, with his ginger staff member Marla (Haviland Morris) alluding to his second wife Marla Maples. Thankfully, Clamp possesses greater compassion than his real-life counterpart.

The “apocalyptic” video Clamp plays during maximum monster mayhem? I discovered it was based on a actual “Doomsday” video commissioned by the CNN boss Ted Turner as a contingency for the world really ended. I noticed how Dante made a special effort to film different iterations of a meta sequence where Gremlins take over the very film you’re watching. An edit for movie houses, one for VHS and TV, each providing a grinning portion of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy prior to the concept being mainstream.

A Lasting Appeal

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s wonderfully grotesque creatures that captured my attention as a child, this deeper gold maintained my fascination as an adult. Eventually, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no qualms informing me he made the movie with the express purpose of poking fun at those who loved its goofy-but-heartfelt predecessor and desired a sequel. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he happily revealed. This anarchic insubordination and commitment 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 experienced a unexpected loss in the family earlier this year, I was surprised to find that, during my most profound sorrow, all I wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Possibly not. The soothing reminiscence it offered was necessary to thin out my mind’s mourning mire – but the stuff it had bestowed upon me as an adult were just as useful.

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 knows it too. Sometimes, you have to be like them: welcome the pandemonium, invest all your resources into tinned provisions and hunting rifles 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 go-to cinematic solace.