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“Well, conditions are quite harsh here. Our recommendation is all of our clients to commit their entire holdings into canned food and shotguns.” This piece of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, articulate, spectacled member of the slimy Gremlin horde that overruns Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s nothing more than an financial suggestion from one monster to another. Yet, oddly enough, it’s also remarkably sound existential counsel. Seriously, consider my perspective.

When things go bad, the worst thing you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin understands this. Indeed, the majority of the toothy monsters that occupy Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (arguably his best) possess the same sly, self-aware funny bone regarding the hazy boundary separating everyday life and pure pandemonium. It’s one element of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that keeps me coming back – and the older I get, it’s the theme that resonates the most.

A Childhood Obsession

Understandably, my fondness for this movie wasn’t born on such an deeply thoughtful note. In my youth, we were limited to a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Part of that group were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a chunky ex-rental box almost certainly acquired from an non-chain rental store and boasting growling monsters on its knackered cover. I was right away smitten and these films did not delay embedding themselves inside my tiny, impressionable mind. Henceforth, they became an almost-daily part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s original usually receives all the plaudits, thanks mostly because of its status as a semi-scary seasonal fave – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. That said, its successor infrequently obtains the same level of elevated esteem, which feels unjust. As a kid, I’d invariably jump at the prospect to watch Gremlins 2. During long summer holidays, I’d lock myself inside and stick it on. When I obtained my very own TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. Over time, it became deeply rooted in my mental framework. If my parents detected this preoccupation, they appeared unbothered.

Subtler Discoveries and Societal Nuggets

As I got older, new insights enhanced frequent screenings, amplifying the pleasure of watching small emerald creatures joyously wreck a New York high-rise. I learned the future-focused property magnate and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was based squarely upon the eventual commander-in-chief Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) referencing his former spouse Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his real-life counterpart.

The “apocalyptic” video Clamp plays during peak-Gremlin chaos? I discovered it was modeled after a actual “Doomsday” video commissioned by the CNN boss Ted Turner should the world truly faced apocalypse. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film varying versions of a self-aware scene where Gremlins seize control of the exact movie you are viewing. One for cinemas, another for home video and television, each delivering a smirking slice of meta pop-culture magic before the term was even a thing.

A Persistent Influence

While it was makeup maestro Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that captured my attention as a child, this deeper gold held my interest as an adult. In time, I even spoke to 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 silly-yet-sincere predecessor and wanted more. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he gleefully confessed. This cartoonish rebelliousness and determination to not take his sequel as gravely as his Warner Bros bosses obviously desired, only made me love it even more.

When I went through a sudden family bereavement earlier this year, I was taken aback to discover that, during my deepest grief, all I desired to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Odd, no? 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 just as useful.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s some things in life you just can’t control. Dante is aware of it. The Brain Gremlin knows it too. Sometimes, you have to be like them: accept the turmoil, put everything you’ve got into tinned provisions and hunting rifles and try not to view the world with undue solemnity.

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