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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 canned food and shotguns.” This piece of shrewd guidance comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, speaking, bespectacled member of the slick creature crowd that overruns Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in director Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On the surface, it’s simply an portfolio pointer from one monster to another. But, oddly enough, it’s also remarkably sound life advice. Seriously, hear me out.

When life takes a turn for the worse, the biggest mistake you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. Indeed, most of the toothy monsters that populate Dante’s wild 1990 film (debateably his greatest) possess the same knowing, self-referential funny bone regarding the indistinct border separating daily routine and absolute bedlam. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that maintains my loyalty – and with the passage of time, it’s the message that strikes the deepest chord.

An Early Life Obsession

Of course, my attachment to this movie did not begin on such an introspective level. As a child, we possessed merely a few battered VHS tapes at home. Part of that group were Gremlins and its sequel, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve probably bought from an independent video outlet and boasting growling monsters on its knackered cover. I was right away smitten and these films wasted no time inserting themselves inside my tiny, impressionable mind. From then on, they became an practically routine part of my early years entertainment regimen.

Dante’s initial installment usually receives all the praise, thanks largely to its legacy as a partly frightening holiday classic – and let me be clear, I’ve watched Gremlins on countless occasions. However, its sequel infrequently obtains the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d always seize the chance to watch Gremlins 2. During bright summer vacations, I’d lock myself inside and stick it on. When I acquired my personal TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. Over time, it ingrained itself in my mindset. If my parents noticed this obsession, they appeared unbothered.

Subtler Delights and Societal Nuggets

As I matured, new revelations rewarded frequent screenings, elevating the fun of watching diminutive verdant beasts joyously wreck a New York high-rise. I learned the forward-thinking development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was based squarely upon the later-to-be-president Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) alluding to his one-time partner Marla Maples. Luckily, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his genuine article inspiration.

The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during maximum monster mayhem? I discovered it was modeled after a genuine “Doomsday” video produced by the CNN boss Ted Turner should the world really ended. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film different iterations of a self-referential segment where Gremlins hijack the exact movie you are viewing. An edit for movie houses, one for VHS and TV, each providing a grinning portion of meta pop-culture magic ahead of its time.

An Enduring Appeal

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s wonderfully grotesque creatures that captured my attention as a child, this deeper gold kept me hooked as an adult. Eventually, I even interviewed Dante about it myself and he had no qualms informing me he made the movie with the specific aim of mocking those who loved its absurd-yet-genuine predecessor and desired a sequel. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he cheerfully disclosed. This cartoonish insubordination and commitment to not take his sequel as solemnly as his Warner Bros bosses obviously desired, only increased my affection for it.

When I went through a sudden family bereavement not long ago, I was surprised to find that, during my deepest grief, all I felt compelled to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Possibly not. The nostalgic calm it furnished was necessary to thin out my mind’s sadness sludge – but the stuff it had given 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 is aware of it. The Brain Gremlin shares this wisdom. Sometimes, you have to be like them: welcome the pandemonium, commit your entire being into tinned provisions and hunting rifles and try not to approach life with excessive gravity.

It’s powerful existential guidance from a very unlikely source – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will forever remain my feelgood film.