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“Well, the situation is pretty dire here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to put everything they’ve got into preserved goods and firearms.” This nugget of wise counsel comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, articulate, glasses-wearing member of the slick creature crowd that swarms Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On the surface, it’s simply an financial suggestion from one monster to another. However, oddly enough, it’s also surprisingly sturdy existential counsel. Seriously, hear me out.

When life takes a turn for the worse, the worst thing you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. In fact, the majority of the dentally-gifted beasts that populate Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (debateably his greatest) possess the same sly, self-aware sense of humour regarding the indistinct border separating everyday life and unadulterated chaos. It’s a particular aspect of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that maintains my loyalty – and the older I get, it’s the message that echoes the loudest.

An Early Life Fascination

Naturally, my fondness for this movie didn’t start on such an philosophical plane. As a child, we possessed merely a few well-worn videocassettes 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 independent video outlet and sporting growling monsters on its tattered front. I was instantly captivated and these films quickly proceeded lodging themselves inside my small, malleable brain. Henceforth, 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 moderately spooky festive favorite – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins on countless occasions. That said, its successor seldom receives the same level of high regard, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d always seize the chance to watch Gremlins 2. During long summer holidays, I’d retreat into the house and play it. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. Over time, it ingrained itself in my mindset. If my parents observed this fixation, they gave no indication of concern.

Subtler Discoveries and Societal References

As I matured, new insights enhanced frequent screenings, amplifying the pleasure of watching little green monsters gleefully trash a New York high-rise. I learned the forward-thinking real estate tycoon and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was inspired directly by the later-to-be-president Donald Trump, with his red-headed employee Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his one-time partner Marla Maples. Thankfully, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his genuine article inspiration.

The “apocalyptic” video Clamp plays during peak-Gremlin chaos? I discovered it was inspired by 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 different iterations of a self-referential segment where Gremlins seize control of the very film you’re watching. A version for theaters, one for VHS and TV, each providing a grinning portion of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy before the term was even a thing.

A Persistent Influence

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s wonderfully grotesque creatures that captured my attention as a child, this subsurface richness maintained my fascination as an adult. Ultimately, I even interviewed Dante about it myself and he had no qualms informing me he made the movie with the express purpose of ridiculing 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 happily revealed. This anarchic insubordination and resolve to not take his sequel as gravely as his Warner Bros bosses clearly wanted him to, only increased my affection for it.

When I experienced a unexpected loss in the family not long ago, I was taken aback to discover that, during my deepest grief, all I felt compelled to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Possibly not. The comforting familiarity it offered was needed to weaken my mind’s mourning mire – but the insights it had imparted to me as an adult were similarly beneficial.

Like Gremlins running amok in a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects in life you just cannot manage. Dante is aware of it. The Brain Gremlin knows it too. Sometimes, you have to follow their example: accept the turmoil, put everything you’ve got into tinned provisions and hunting rifles 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 comfort movie.