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“Well, conditions are quite harsh here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to put everything they’ve got into canned food and shotguns.” This piece of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, talking, bespectacled member of the slimy Gremlin horde that swarms Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s unhinged continuation Gremlins 2: The New Batch. At first glance, it’s simply an financial suggestion from one monster to another. However, curiously, it’s also pretty solid life guidance. Truly, hear me out.

When things go bad, the biggest mistake you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin comprehends this. Indeed, the majority of the dentally-gifted beasts that inhabit Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (arguably his best) possess the same wry, meta comic sensibility regarding the indistinct border separating the mundane and unadulterated chaos. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and as I age, it’s the theme that strikes the deepest chord.

An Early Life Fascination

Naturally, my connection with this movie wasn’t born on such an deeply thoughtful note. In my youth, we were limited to a few well-worn videocassettes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its sequel, the latter housed in a bulky previously-rented case probably bought from an independent video outlet and featuring snarling creatures on its knackered cover. I was right away smitten and these films quickly proceeded inserting themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. After that point, they became an almost-daily part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s original usually receives all the praise, thanks mostly because of its legacy as a partly frightening holiday classic – and let me be clear, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. That said, its sequel seldom receives the same level of elevated esteem, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d always seize the chance to watch Gremlins 2. During long summer holidays, I’d retreat into the house and pop it in. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it stayed in constant rotation in my bedroom. With repetition, it etched itself permanently in my mental framework. If my parents detected this preoccupation, they gave no indication of concern.

Hidden Rewards and Societal Easter Eggs

As I grew, new insights rewarded frequent screenings, heightening the enjoyment of watching small emerald creatures happily vandalize a New York high-rise. I learned the ahead-of-its-time real estate tycoon 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 possesses greater compassion than his genuine article inspiration.

The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during the height of creature carnage? I discovered it was modeled after a actual “Doomsday” video produced by the CNN boss Ted Turner as a contingency for the world truly faced apocalypse. I noticed how Dante made a special effort to film different iterations of a meta sequence where Gremlins hijack the exact movie you are viewing. One for cinemas, one for VHS and TV, each delivering a smirking slice of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy prior to the concept being mainstream.

A Persistent Appeal

While it was makeup maestro Rick Baker’s fantastically vile creatures that caught my eye as a child, this deeper gold maintained my fascination as an adult. Ultimately, I even conversed with Dante about it myself and he had no reservations telling me he made the movie with the specific aim of mocking those who loved its absurd-yet-genuine predecessor and craved further installments. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he cheerfully disclosed. This anarchic insubordination and determination to not take his sequel as seriously as his Warner Bros bosses evidently expected, only increased my affection for it.

When I endured a unexpected loss in the family not long ago, I was taken aback to discover that, during my heightest mourning, all I desired to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Perhaps not. The soothing reminiscence it furnished was needed to thin out my mind’s sadness sludge – but the insights it had bestowed upon me as an adult were just as useful.

Like Gremlins running amok in a genetics laboratory, there’s certain elements in life you just cannot manage. Dante understands this. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to be like them: welcome the pandemonium, commit your entire being 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.