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“Well, conditions are quite harsh here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to invest all their resources into tinned provisions and hunting rifles.” This piece of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, speaking, bespectacled member of the slimy Gremlin horde that swarms Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s unhinged continuation Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s simply an portfolio pointer from one monster to another. However, oddly enough, it’s also surprisingly sturdy life advice. 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 comprehends this. In fact, a large portion of the dentally-gifted beasts that inhabit Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (possibly his finest) possess the same knowing, self-referential sense of humour regarding the hazy boundary separating daily routine and unadulterated chaos. 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 resonates the most.

A Childhood Fixation

Naturally, my connection with this movie didn’t start on such an philosophical plane. As a child, we possessed merely a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a chunky ex-rental box almost certainly acquired from an off-brand video shop and boasting snarling creatures on its worn-out artwork. I was right away smitten and these films did not delay embedding themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. From then on, they became an almost-daily part of my early years entertainment regimen.

Dante’s first film typically gets all the plaudits, thanks largely to its reputation as a partly frightening holiday classic – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins more times than I can count. However, its follow-up infrequently obtains the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels criminal. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d lock myself inside and stick it on. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it stayed in constant rotation in my bedroom. With repetition, it ingrained itself in my mindset. If my parents detected this preoccupation, they appeared unbothered.

Subtler Delights and Societal References

As I grew, new revelations enriched repeat viewings, amplifying the pleasure of watching little green monsters gleefully trash a New York high-rise. I learned the forward-thinking property magnate and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was modeled closely on the eventual commander-in-chief Donald Trump, with his ginger staff member Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his former spouse Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp possesses greater compassion than his real-life counterpart.

The “end of civilisation” video Clamp plays during maximum monster mayhem? I discovered it was based on a genuine “Doomsday” video commissioned 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-aware scene where Gremlins seize control of the actual feature in progress. A version for theaters, one for VHS and TV, each offering a winking bit of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy before the term was even a thing.

A Lasting Legacy

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that captured my attention as a child, this hidden treasure held my interest as an adult. Ultimately, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no qualms telling me he made the movie with the specific aim 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 anarchic defiance and commitment to not take his sequel as solemnly as his Warner Bros bosses obviously desired, only increased my affection for it.

When I experienced a sudden family bereavement not long ago, 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. Weird, right? Possibly not. The comforting familiarity it offered was necessary to dilute my mind’s grief morass – but the insights it had bestowed upon me as an adult were just as useful.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s certain elements in life you just can’t control. Dante knows it. The Brain Gremlin knows it too. Sometimes, you have to be like them: embrace the chaos, put everything you’ve got into canned food and shotguns and try not to approach life with excessive gravity.

It’s robust worldly wisdom from a most improbable origin – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will always be my feelgood film.