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“Well, the situation is pretty dire here. We’re advising all of our clients to invest all their resources into preserved goods and firearms.” This piece of shrewd guidance comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, speaking, glasses-wearing 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. At first glance, it’s nothing more than an financial suggestion from one monster to another. Yet, curiously, it’s also remarkably sound life advice. Honestly, hear me out.

When situations deteriorate, the most counterproductive action you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin understands this. Actually, the majority of the toothy monsters that inhabit Dante’s wild 1990 film (possibly his finest) possess the same knowing, self-referential comic sensibility regarding the hazy boundary separating the mundane and pure pandemonium. It’s a particular aspect of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and the older I get, it’s the underlying idea that echoes the loudest.

An Early Life Obsession

Of course, my attachment to this movie did not begin on such an deeply thoughtful note. In my youth, we possessed merely a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its sequel, the latter housed in a bulky previously-rented case almost certainly acquired from an non-chain rental store and sporting grimacing beasts on its tattered front. I was immediately enamoured and these films quickly proceeded inserting themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. After that point, they became an practically routine part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s initial installment commonly garners all the accolades, thanks largely to its reputation as a semi-scary seasonal fave – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins on countless occasions. That said, its successor rarely gets the same level of high regard, 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 pop it in. When I obtained my very 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 detected this preoccupation, they didn’t seem to mind.

Subtler Discoveries and Pop-Culture Easter Eggs

As I matured, new insights 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 eventual commander-in-chief Donald Trump, with his ginger staff member Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his former spouse Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp has more heart than his actual-world equivalent.

The “apocalyptic” video Clamp plays during peak-Gremlin chaos? I discovered it was modeled after a genuine “Doomsday” video produced by the CNN boss Ted Turner as a contingency for the world truly faced apocalypse. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film varying versions of a meta sequence where Gremlins seize control of the very film you’re watching. An edit for movie houses, a separate one for tape and broadcast, each delivering a smirking slice of meta pop-culture magic before the term was even a thing.

A Persistent Legacy

While it was makeup maestro Rick Baker’s fantastically vile creatures that drew my gaze as a child, this subsurface richness maintained my fascination as an adult. Ultimately, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no hesitation informing me he made the movie with the specific aim of mocking those who loved its silly-yet-sincere predecessor and desired a sequel. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he happily revealed. This cartoonish rebelliousness and resolve to not take his sequel as gravely as his Warner Bros bosses evidently expected, only made me love it even more.

When I endured a abrupt familial death not long ago, I was astonished to realize that, during my deepest grief, all I felt compelled to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Strange, isn’t it? Possibly not. The soothing reminiscence it provided was needed to thin out my mind’s mourning mire – but the perspectives it had bestowed upon me as an adult were just as useful.

Like Gremlins tearing apart a genetics laboratory, there’s certain elements in life you just are powerless over. Dante knows it. The Brain Gremlin shares this wisdom. Sometimes, you have to follow their example: 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 very unlikely source – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will always be my comfort movie.