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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.” That bit of wise counsel comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, articulate, spectacled member of the oozy monster mob that infests Manhattan’s super-smart Clamp Tower skyscraper in director Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On the surface, it’s merely an financial suggestion from one monster to another. Yet, oddly enough, it’s also pretty solid life advice. Honestly, consider my perspective.

When situations deteriorate, the worst thing you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin comprehends this. Actually, most of the dentally-gifted beasts that populate Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (debateably his greatest) possess the same sly, self-aware funny bone regarding the indistinct border separating everyday life and absolute bedlam. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that maintains my loyalty – and the older I get, it’s the theme that resonates the most.

A Youthful Obsession

Of course, my fondness for this movie wasn’t born on such an deeply thoughtful note. As a child, we possessed merely a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Among them were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a chunky ex-rental box almost certainly acquired from an non-chain rental store and featuring grimacing beasts on its knackered cover. I was instantly captivated and these films did not delay inserting themselves inside my tiny, impressionable mind. Henceforth, they became an practically routine part of my youthful watching schedule.

Dante’s original usually receives all the plaudits, thanks largely to its status as a partly frightening holiday classic – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins more times than I can count. Nevertheless, its follow-up infrequently obtains the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d invariably jump at the prospect to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d seclude myself indoors and stick it on. When I obtained my very own TV-VHS combo unit, it stayed in constant rotation in my bedroom. Gradually, it etched itself permanently in my mental framework. If my parents observed this fixation, they didn’t seem to mind.

Deeper Rewards and Cultural References

As I grew, new insights enriched multiple watches, elevating the fun of watching small emerald creatures joyously wreck 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 auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his one-time partner Marla Maples. Luckily, Clamp has more heart than his genuine article inspiration.

The “apocalyptic” video Clamp plays during maximum monster mayhem? I discovered it was modeled after a actual “Doomsday” video produced by the CNN boss Ted Turner should 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 actual feature in progress. A version for theaters, a separate one for tape and broadcast, each offering a winking bit of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy before the term was even a thing.

A Lasting Appeal

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s fantastically vile creatures that caught my eye as a child, this deeper gold kept me hooked as an adult. Eventually, I even spoke to Dante about it myself and he had no hesitation informing me he made the movie with the direct intention of ridiculing those who loved its absurd-yet-genuine predecessor and craved further installments. “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 made me love it even more.

When I experienced a unexpected loss in the family recently, I was taken aback to discover that, during my deepest grief, all I desired to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Strange, isn’t it? Maybe 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 just as useful.

Like Gremlins rampaging through a genetics laboratory, there’s particular aspects in life you just are powerless over. Dante knows it. The Brain Gremlin knows it too. Sometimes, you have to be like them: accept the turmoil, commit your entire being into canned food and shotguns and try not to take things too seriously.

It’s robust worldly wisdom from a highly unexpected fountain – and it’s why Gremlins 2: The New Batch will forever remain my feelgood film.