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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. Our recommendation is all of our clients to commit their entire holdings into canned food and shotguns.” That bit of wise counsel comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, speaking, glasses-wearing member of the slimy Gremlin horde that infests Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s unhinged continuation Gremlins 2: The New Batch. At first glance, it’s merely an financial suggestion from one monster to another. Yet, curiously, it’s also remarkably sound existential counsel. Seriously, consider my perspective.

When situations deteriorate, the biggest mistake you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. Indeed, most of the dentally-gifted beasts that populate Dante’s wild 1990 film (debateably his greatest) possess the same sly, self-aware comic sensibility regarding the hazy boundary separating daily routine and absolute bedlam. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and as I age, it’s the underlying idea that strikes the deepest chord.

A Youthful Fascination

Understandably, my connection with this movie did not begin on such an introspective level. As a child, we only had a few battered VHS tapes at home. Among them were Gremlins and its sequel, the latter housed in a bulky previously-rented case probably bought from an independent video outlet and sporting growling monsters on its tattered front. I was immediately enamoured and these films quickly proceeded inserting themselves inside my small, malleable brain. From then on, they became an near-everyday part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s first film usually receives all the praise, thanks primarily due to its reputation as a partly frightening holiday classic – and let me be clear, I’ve watched Gremlins more times than I can count. However, its successor infrequently obtains the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels criminal. As a kid, I’d invariably jump at the prospect to watch Gremlins 2. During long summer holidays, I’d lock myself inside and play it. When I obtained my very own TV-VHS combo unit, it remained on repeat in my bedroom. Gradually, it etched itself permanently in my psyche. If my parents observed this fixation, they gave no indication of concern.

Subtler Discoveries and Pop-Culture Easter Eggs

As I got older, new revelations rewarded frequent screenings, amplifying the pleasure of watching diminutive verdant beasts happily vandalize 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 later-to-be-president Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his former spouse Marla Maples. Luckily, Clamp has more heart than his actual-world equivalent.

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 as a contingency for the world really ended. I noticed how Dante made a special effort to film alternate cuts of a self-referential segment where Gremlins hijack the actual feature in progress. An edit for movie houses, another for home video and television, each offering a winking bit of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy ahead of its time.

A Lasting Legacy

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s wonderfully grotesque creatures that drew my gaze as a child, this deeper gold 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 poking fun at those who loved its absurd-yet-genuine 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 commitment to not take his sequel as solemnly as his Warner Bros bosses evidently expected, only increased my affection for it.

When I went through a unexpected loss in the family recently, I was astonished to realize that, during my heightest mourning, all I wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Maybe not. The comforting familiarity it furnished was essential to weaken my mind’s sadness sludge – but the stuff it had imparted to me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects in life you just cannot manage. Dante is aware of it. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to be like them: accept the turmoil, invest all your resources into canned food and shotguns and try not to view the world with undue solemnity.

It’s powerful existential guidance from a most improbable origin – and it’s why Gremlins 2: The New Batch will eternally stand as my feelgood film.