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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 tinned provisions and hunting rifles.” This piece of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, articulate, spectacled member of the oozy monster mob that overruns Manhattan’s super-smart Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s unhinged continuation Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On the surface, it’s nothing more than an investment tip from one monster to another. However, oddly enough, it’s also pretty solid life guidance. Seriously, hear me out.

When things go bad, the worst thing you can do is view events with undue solemnity. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. In fact, most of the dentally-gifted beasts that inhabit Dante’s wild 1990 film (arguably his best) possess the same wry, meta comic sensibility regarding the indistinct border separating daily routine and pure pandemonium. It’s one element of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and with the passage of time, it’s the theme that echoes the loudest.

A Childhood Fixation

Naturally, my connection with this movie didn’t start on such an deeply thoughtful note. As a child, we were limited to a few battered VHS tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a bulky previously-rented case probably bought from an off-brand video shop and featuring growling monsters on its worn-out artwork. I was instantly captivated and these films wasted no time lodging themselves inside my small, malleable brain. Henceforth, they became an almost-daily part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s initial installment usually receives all the praise, thanks mostly because of its status as a moderately spooky festive favorite – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. However, its successor infrequently obtains the same level of elevated esteem, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d always seize the chance to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d lock myself inside and pop it in. When I obtained my very own TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. With repetition, it ingrained itself in my mental framework. If my parents noticed this obsession, they didn’t seem to mind.

Deeper Rewards and Societal References

As I grew, new insights enriched repeat viewings, amplifying the pleasure of watching diminutive verdant beasts gleefully trash a New York high-rise. I learned the future-focused development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was modeled closely on the eventual commander-in-chief Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) alluding to his second wife Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp has more heart than his actual-world equivalent.

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 truly faced apocalypse. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film alternate cuts of a self-referential segment where Gremlins hijack the actual feature in progress. An edit for movie houses, a separate one for tape and broadcast, each providing a grinning portion of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy before the term was even a thing.

A Lasting Influence

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s fantastically vile creatures that drew my gaze as a child, this subsurface richness kept me hooked as an adult. Eventually, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no hesitation telling me he made the movie with the specific aim of ridiculing 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 anarchic insubordination and commitment to not take his sequel as solemnly as his Warner Bros bosses obviously desired, only made me love it even more.

When I experienced a abrupt familial death earlier this year, I was surprised to find that, during my heightest mourning, all I felt compelled to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Odd, no? Possibly not. The comforting familiarity it furnished was needed to weaken my mind’s mourning mire – but the stuff it had given me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s certain elements in life you just can’t control. Dante understands this. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to emulate them: welcome the pandemonium, invest all your resources into tinned provisions and hunting rifles and try not to take things too seriously.

It’s powerful existential guidance from a most improbable origin – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will eternally stand as my go-to cinematic solace.