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“Well, conditions are quite harsh here. The guidance we offer 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, articulate, bespectacled member of the slick creature crowd that infests Manhattan’s super-smart Clamp Tower skyscraper in helmer Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s merely an financial suggestion from one monster to another. However, oddly enough, it’s also surprisingly sturdy life advice. Seriously, hear me out.

When situations deteriorate, the worst thing you can do is view events with undue solemnity. The Brain Gremlin comprehends this. Actually, most of the fang-bearing creatures that inhabit Dante’s wild 1990 film (debateably his greatest) possess the same sly, self-aware funny bone regarding the hazy boundary separating daily routine and pure pandemonium. It’s one element of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and with the passage of time, it’s the underlying idea that strikes the deepest chord.

A Youthful Obsession

Understandably, my connection with this movie wasn’t born on such an introspective level. In my youth, we were limited to a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a bulky previously-rented case almost certainly acquired from an independent video outlet and sporting snarling creatures on its knackered cover. I was right away smitten and these films wasted no time lodging themselves inside my tiny, impressionable mind. Henceforth, they became an practically routine part of my early years entertainment regimen.

Dante’s first film usually receives all the praise, thanks mostly because of its status as a moderately spooky festive favorite – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. Nevertheless, its sequel infrequently obtains the same level of high regard, which feels unjust. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d retreat into the house and play it. When I obtained my very own TV-VHS combo unit, it remained on repeat in my bedroom. Gradually, it became deeply rooted in my psyche. If my parents noticed this obsession, they gave no indication of concern.

Subtler Rewards and Pop-Culture References

As I got older, new insights enriched frequent screenings, amplifying the pleasure of watching small emerald creatures gleefully trash a New York high-rise. I learned the future-focused real estate tycoon and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was inspired directly by the later-to-be-president Donald Trump, with his ginger staff member Marla (Haviland Morris) alluding to his former spouse Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his actual-world equivalent.

The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during the height of creature carnage? I discovered it was inspired by a genuine “Doomsday” video created 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 meta sequence where Gremlins seize control of the very film you’re watching. An edit for movie houses, one for VHS and TV, each offering a winking bit of meta pop-culture magic before the term was even a thing.

An Enduring Appeal

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that caught my eye as a child, this deeper gold kept me hooked as an adult. Eventually, I even conversed with Dante about it myself and he had no qualms informing me he made the movie with the express purpose of poking fun at those who loved its goofy-but-heartfelt predecessor and wanted more. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he happily revealed. This cartoonish defiance and resolve to not take his sequel as seriously as his Warner Bros bosses evidently expected, only deepened my appreciation further.

When I endured a sudden family bereavement earlier this year, I was surprised to find that, during my most profound sorrow, all I desired to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Perhaps not. The comforting familiarity it provided was essential to dilute my mind’s mourning mire – but the stuff it had bestowed upon me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects in life you just are powerless over. Dante knows it. The Brain Gremlin shares this wisdom. Sometimes, you have to emulate them: welcome the pandemonium, commit your entire being into tinned provisions and hunting rifles and try not to approach life with excessive gravity.

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