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“Well, the situation is pretty dire here. We’re advising all of our clients to commit their entire holdings into tinned provisions and hunting rifles.” This nugget of shrewd guidance comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, articulate, bespectacled member of the slick creature crowd that infests Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s zany follow-up Gremlins 2: The New Batch. At first glance, it’s simply an portfolio pointer from one monster to another. However, oddly enough, it’s also surprisingly sturdy life guidance. Honestly, hear me out.

When life takes a turn for the worse, the worst thing you can do is view events with undue solemnity. The Brain Gremlin understands this. Indeed, a large portion of the fang-bearing creatures that populate Dante’s chaotic 1990 feature (arguably his best) possess the same knowing, self-referential comic sensibility regarding the hazy boundary separating the mundane and unadulterated chaos. It’s one element of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and the older I get, it’s the theme that resonates the most.

A Youthful Fixation

Naturally, my attachment to this movie wasn’t born on such an introspective level. As a child, we only had 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 likely purchased from an independent video outlet and boasting snarling creatures on its worn-out artwork. I was instantly captivated and these films wasted no time embedding themselves inside my small, malleable brain. From then on, they became an near-everyday part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s original commonly garners all the praise, thanks mostly because of its reputation as a partly frightening holiday classic – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. That said, its follow-up rarely gets the same level of high regard, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During bright summer vacations, I’d lock myself inside and play it. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it stayed in constant rotation in my bedroom. With repetition, it became deeply rooted in my mindset. If my parents detected this preoccupation, they appeared unbothered.

Deeper Delights and Pop-Culture Easter Eggs

As I matured, new insights enhanced repeat viewings, amplifying the pleasure of watching diminutive verdant beasts joyously wreck a New York high-rise. I learned the forward-thinking development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was modeled closely on the later-to-be-president Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his former spouse Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp has more heart than his real-life counterpart.

The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during the height of creature carnage? I discovered it was inspired by a real-life “Doomsday” video produced by the CNN boss Ted Turner should the world really ended. I noticed how Dante made a special effort to film different iterations of a self-aware scene where Gremlins seize control of the exact movie you are viewing. One for cinemas, one for VHS and TV, each offering a winking bit of self-referential entertainment sorcery ahead of its time.

A Persistent Appeal

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s fantastically vile creatures that captured my attention as a child, this deeper gold held my interest as an adult. Eventually, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no reservations revealing to me he made the movie with the direct intention 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 cheerfully disclosed. This anarchic insubordination and resolve to not take his sequel as gravely as his Warner Bros bosses clearly wanted him to, only deepened my appreciation further.

When I went through a abrupt familial death not long ago, I was taken aback to discover that, during my heightest mourning, all I wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Odd, no? Maybe not. The soothing reminiscence it furnished was necessary to weaken my mind’s mourning mire – but the insights it had given me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects in life you just can’t control. Dante understands this. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to be like them: embrace the chaos, invest all your resources into tinned provisions and hunting rifles and try not to approach life with excessive gravity.

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.