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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. We’re advising all of our clients to invest all their resources into canned food and shotguns.” This piece of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, speaking, bespectacled member of the slimy Gremlin horde that swarms Manhattan’s super-smart Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s unhinged continuation Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s simply an portfolio pointer from one monster to another. But, oddly enough, it’s also surprisingly sturdy life advice. Honestly, hear me out.

When situations deteriorate, the worst thing you can do is view events with undue solemnity. The Brain Gremlin comprehends this. Indeed, the majority of the toothy monsters that populate Dante’s wild 1990 film (arguably his best) possess the same knowing, self-referential sense of humour regarding the blurry line separating everyday life and unadulterated chaos. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and the older I get, it’s the underlying idea that echoes the loudest.

A Childhood Fixation

Naturally, my fondness for this movie didn’t start on such an introspective level. In my youth, we possessed merely a few battered VHS tapes 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 growling monsters on its worn-out artwork. I was immediately enamoured and these films quickly proceeded lodging themselves inside my small, malleable brain. From then on, they became an near-everyday part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s first film commonly garners all the praise, thanks largely to its legacy as a partly frightening holiday classic – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins on countless occasions. However, its sequel infrequently obtains the same level of elevated esteem, which feels criminal. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During long summer holidays, 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 ingrained itself in my mental framework. If my parents detected this preoccupation, they gave no indication of concern.

Hidden Discoveries and Pop-Culture Easter Eggs

As I got older, new revelations enriched multiple watches, heightening the enjoyment of watching small emerald creatures gleefully trash a New York high-rise. I learned the forward-thinking property magnate and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was inspired directly by future president Donald Trump, with his ginger staff member Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his second wife Marla Maples. Luckily, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his real-life counterpart.

The “end of civilisation” 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 made a special effort to film different iterations of a self-referential segment where Gremlins seize control of the very film you’re watching. A version for theaters, one for VHS and TV, each providing a grinning portion of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy ahead of its time.

A Persistent Appeal

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s fantastically vile creatures that drew my gaze as a child, this subsurface richness maintained my fascination as an adult. In time, I even conversed with Dante about it myself and he had no reservations informing 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 happily revealed. This Looney Tunes-esque defiance and determination 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 wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Strange, isn’t it? Possibly not. The soothing reminiscence it offered was essential to weaken my mind’s grief morass – but the insights it had imparted to me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins tearing apart a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects in life you just can’t control. Dante understands this. The Brain Gremlin knows it too. Sometimes, you have to emulate them: embrace the chaos, invest all your resources into canned food and shotguns and try not to take things too seriously.

It’s strong life advice from a very unlikely source – and it’s why Gremlins 2: The New Batch will always be my comfort movie.