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“Well, it’s rather brutal here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to commit their entire holdings into canned food and shotguns.” This nugget of shrewd guidance comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, speaking, bespectacled member of the slick creature crowd that overruns Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in helmer 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, oddly enough, it’s also surprisingly sturdy existential counsel. Seriously, hear me out.

When situations deteriorate, the biggest mistake you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin comprehends this. In fact, most of the dentally-gifted beasts that populate Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (arguably his best) possess the same knowing, self-referential comic sensibility regarding the indistinct border separating daily routine and absolute bedlam. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that keeps me coming back – and the older I get, it’s the theme that echoes the loudest.

A Youthful Fixation

Naturally, my attachment to this movie wasn’t born on such an philosophical plane. In my youth, we were limited to 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 probably bought from an independent video outlet and sporting grimacing beasts on its worn-out artwork. I was instantly captivated and these films wasted no time lodging themselves inside my tiny, impressionable mind. After that point, they became an near-everyday part of my youthful watching schedule.

Dante’s initial installment commonly garners all the plaudits, thanks mostly because of its reputation as a semi-scary seasonal fave – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. Nevertheless, its successor rarely gets the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels criminal. As a kid, I’d always seize the chance to watch Gremlins 2. During bright summer vacations, I’d retreat into the house and pop it in. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it remained on repeat in my bedroom. Gradually, it became deeply rooted in my mental framework. If my parents observed this fixation, they appeared unbothered.

Hidden Delights and Pop-Culture Easter Eggs

As I grew, new insights enhanced multiple watches, 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 inspired directly by the eventual commander-in-chief Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) referencing his one-time partner Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his genuine article inspiration.

The “doomsday” 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 took extra pains to film varying versions of a self-aware scene where Gremlins seize control of the very film you’re watching. A version for theaters, a separate one for tape and broadcast, each offering a winking bit of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy ahead of its time.

A Persistent Appeal

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that captured my attention as a child, this deeper gold kept me hooked as an adult. Ultimately, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no hesitation telling me he made the movie with the express purpose 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 cartoonish insubordination and commitment to not take his sequel as seriously as his Warner Bros bosses clearly wanted him to, only increased my affection for it.

When I went through a unexpected loss in the family not long ago, I was astonished to realize that, during my most profound sorrow, all I felt compelled to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Strange, isn’t it? Maybe not. The nostalgic calm it provided was essential to dilute my mind’s sadness sludge – but the insights it had given me as an adult were just as useful.

Like Gremlins tearing apart a genetics laboratory, there’s some things in life you just cannot manage. Dante knows it. The Brain Gremlin shares this wisdom. Sometimes, you have to emulate them: welcome the pandemonium, invest all your resources into tinned provisions and hunting rifles and try not to take things too seriously.

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.