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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to put everything they’ve got into preserved goods and firearms.” This piece of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, articulate, spectacled member of the slick creature crowd that infests Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in helmer Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s merely an portfolio pointer from one monster to another. But, in a strange manner, it’s also remarkably sound life guidance. Honestly, consider my perspective.

When things go bad, the worst thing you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. Actually, most of the toothy monsters that populate Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (arguably his best) possess the same wry, meta comic sensibility regarding the blurry line separating the mundane and absolute bedlam. It’s one element of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that keeps me coming back – and the older I get, it’s the underlying idea that strikes the deepest chord.

A Youthful Fascination

Of course, my connection with this movie didn’t start on such an deeply thoughtful note. As a child, we only had a few well-worn videocassettes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve almost certainly acquired from an off-brand video shop and sporting snarling creatures on its worn-out artwork. I was instantly captivated and these films did not delay inserting themselves inside my small, malleable brain. After that point, they became an near-everyday part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s initial installment typically gets all the praise, thanks mostly because of its status as a semi-scary seasonal fave – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins on countless occasions. Nevertheless, its successor rarely gets the same level of high regard, which feels unjust. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d seclude myself indoors and play it. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it stayed in constant rotation in my bedroom. With repetition, it became deeply rooted in my mindset. If my parents noticed this obsession, they gave no indication of concern.

Deeper Rewards and Societal Easter Eggs

As I got older, new revelations 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 modeled closely on the later-to-be-president Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his former spouse Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp has more heart than his actual-world equivalent.

The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during peak-Gremlin chaos? I discovered it was inspired by a real-life “Doomsday” video commissioned by the CNN boss Ted Turner as a contingency for the world really ended. I noticed how Dante took extra pains to film alternate cuts of a self-aware scene where Gremlins seize control of the actual feature in progress. An edit for movie houses, one for VHS and TV, each providing a grinning portion of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy ahead of its time.

A Lasting Legacy

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that captured my attention as a child, this subsurface richness maintained my fascination as an adult. Eventually, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no qualms revealing to me he made the movie with the express purpose of mocking those who loved its silly-yet-sincere predecessor and wanted more. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he gleefully confessed. This Looney Tunes-esque insubordination and resolve to not take his sequel as seriously as his Warner Bros bosses clearly wanted him to, only deepened my appreciation further.

When I went through a sudden family bereavement recently, I was surprised to find that, during my heightest mourning, all I felt compelled to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Odd, no? Possibly not. The soothing reminiscence it offered 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 tearing apart a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects 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 preserved goods and firearms and try not to approach life with excessive gravity.

It’s robust worldly wisdom from a highly unexpected fountain – and it’s why Gremlins 2: The New Batch will eternally stand as my comfort movie.