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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 preserved goods and firearms.” This piece of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, talking, glasses-wearing member of the slimy Gremlin horde that overruns Manhattan’s ultra-modern Clamp Tower skyscraper in director Joe Dante’s unhinged continuation Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s merely an financial suggestion from one monster to another. However, in a strange manner, it’s also pretty solid life guidance. Truly, listen to my reasoning.

When things go bad, the worst thing you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. In fact, a large portion of the dentally-gifted beasts that populate Dante’s wild 1990 film (possibly his finest) possess the same sly, self-aware comic sensibility regarding the blurry line separating the mundane and pure pandemonium. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that maintains my loyalty – and as I age, it’s the message that echoes the loudest.

An Early Life Obsession

Of course, my attachment to this movie didn’t start on such an deeply thoughtful note. In my youth, we were limited to a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its second chapter, the latter housed in a bulky previously-rented case almost certainly acquired from an independent video outlet and sporting grimacing beasts 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 almost-daily part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s initial installment typically gets all the accolades, thanks primarily due to its status as a partly frightening holiday classic – and let me be clear, I’ve watched Gremlins more times than I can count. That said, its successor rarely gets the same level of high regard, which feels criminal. As a kid, I’d invariably jump at the prospect to watch Gremlins 2. During bright summer vacations, I’d retreat into the house and pop it in. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it remained on repeat in my bedroom. Gradually, it ingrained itself in my mental framework. If my parents noticed this obsession, they didn’t seem to mind.

Hidden Discoveries and Societal References

As I got older, new revelations rewarded frequent screenings, elevating the fun of watching little green monsters happily vandalize 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 red-headed employee Marla (Haviland Morris) alluding to his second wife Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp has more heart than his genuine article inspiration.

The “end of civilisation” video Clamp plays during peak-Gremlin chaos? I discovered it was modeled after a real-life “Doomsday” video commissioned by the CNN boss Ted Turner in case the world truly faced apocalypse. I noticed how Dante made a special effort to film different iterations of a self-aware scene where Gremlins seize control of the very film you’re watching. One for cinemas, one for VHS and TV, each offering a winking bit of meta pop-culture magic prior to the concept being mainstream.

A Lasting Influence

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 interviewed Dante about it myself and he had no reservations telling me he made the movie with the specific aim of ridiculing those who loved its goofy-but-heartfelt predecessor and wanted more. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he gleefully confessed. This anarchic defiance and determination to not take his sequel as seriously as his Warner Bros bosses evidently expected, only deepened my appreciation further.

When I experienced a sudden family bereavement earlier this year, 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? Perhaps not. The comforting familiarity it provided was necessary to weaken my mind’s mourning mire – but the insights it had imparted to me as an adult were just as useful.

Like Gremlins running amok in a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects in life you just are powerless over. Dante knows it. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to be like them: welcome the pandemonium, commit your entire being into canned food and shotguns and try not to approach life with excessive gravity.

It’s strong life advice from a highly unexpected fountain – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will always be my comfort movie.