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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 nugget of wise counsel comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, talking, glasses-wearing member of the slimy Gremlin horde that overruns Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in director Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On the surface, it’s simply an investment tip from one monster to another. However, curiously, it’s also surprisingly sturdy life advice. Truly, consider my perspective.

When things go bad, the worst thing you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin comprehends this. In fact, a large portion of the toothy monsters that occupy Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (arguably his best) possess the same knowing, self-referential funny bone regarding the indistinct border separating daily routine and absolute bedlam. It’s a particular aspect of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and with the passage of time, it’s the theme that strikes the deepest chord.

An Early Life Obsession

Of course, my connection with this movie did not begin on such an introspective level. In my youth, we only had a few battered VHS tapes at home. Among them were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve almost certainly acquired from an non-chain rental store and featuring grimacing beasts on its knackered cover. I was right away smitten and these films quickly proceeded inserting themselves inside my tiny, impressionable mind. After that point, they became an practically routine part of my early years entertainment regimen.

Dante’s first film typically gets all the accolades, thanks largely to its reputation as a partly frightening holiday classic – and let me be clear, I’ve watched Gremlins on countless occasions. However, its follow-up infrequently obtains the same level of high regard, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d lock myself inside and play it. When I obtained my very own TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. With repetition, it ingrained itself in my psyche. If my parents observed this fixation, they appeared unbothered.

Hidden Rewards and Pop-Culture Easter Eggs

As I grew, new revelations rewarded multiple watches, elevating the fun of watching little green monsters happily vandalize a New York high-rise. I learned the forward-thinking development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was inspired directly by the later-to-be-president Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his second wife 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 inspired by a actual “Doomsday” video produced by the CNN boss Ted Turner as a contingency for the world really ended. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film varying versions of a self-referential segment where Gremlins seize control of the very film you’re watching. A version for theaters, another for home video and television, each providing a grinning portion of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy prior to the concept being mainstream.

An Enduring Appeal

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s wonderfully grotesque creatures that drew my gaze as a child, this hidden treasure kept me hooked as an adult. Eventually, I even interviewed Dante about it myself and he had no reservations telling me he made the movie with the specific aim of poking fun at those who loved its absurd-yet-genuine predecessor and craved further installments. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he gleefully confessed. This Looney Tunes-esque rebelliousness and determination to not take his sequel as seriously as his Warner Bros bosses obviously desired, only made me love it even more.

When I went through a abrupt familial death recently, I was astonished to realize that, during my most profound sorrow, all I wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Strange, isn’t it? Maybe not. The nostalgic calm it provided was needed to dilute my mind’s sadness sludge – but the insights it had given me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins running amok in a genetics laboratory, there’s certain elements in life you just are powerless over. Dante knows it. The Brain Gremlin knows it too. Sometimes, you have to emulate them: accept the turmoil, put everything you’ve got into canned food and shotguns and try not to take things too seriously.

It’s powerful existential guidance from a very unlikely source – and it’s why Gremlins 2: The New Batch will forever remain my comfort movie.