🔗 Share this article

“Well, the situation is pretty dire here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to invest all their resources into preserved goods and firearms.” That bit of wise counsel comes from the Brain Gremlin – a scientifically altered, talking, spectacled member of the oozy monster mob that infests Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s madcap sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s nothing more than an portfolio pointer from one monster to another. But, oddly enough, it’s also remarkably sound existential counsel. Truly, consider my perspective.

When life takes a turn for the worse, the worst thing you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. Indeed, the majority of the toothy monsters that occupy Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (possibly his finest) possess the same sly, self-aware comic sensibility regarding the blurry line separating daily routine and pure pandemonium. It’s one element of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and the older I get, it’s the theme that strikes the deepest chord.

A Childhood Obsession

Of course, my connection with this movie didn’t start on such an deeply thoughtful note. In my youth, we possessed merely a few battered VHS tapes at home. Part of that group were Gremlins and its second chapter, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve likely purchased from an independent video outlet and featuring growling monsters on its tattered front. I was immediately enamoured and these films did not delay lodging themselves inside my small, malleable brain. Henceforth, they became an practically routine part of my youthful watching schedule.

Dante’s first film commonly garners all the praise, thanks largely to its legacy as a semi-scary seasonal fave – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. That said, its sequel rarely gets the same level of high regard, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d invariably jump at the prospect to watch Gremlins 2. During bright summer vacations, I’d lock myself inside and stick it on. When I acquired my personal TV-VHS combo unit, it stayed in constant rotation in my bedroom. Over time, it ingrained itself in my mindset. If my parents detected this preoccupation, they didn’t seem to mind.

Subtler Discoveries and Pop-Culture Easter Eggs

As I grew, new insights enhanced repeat viewings, elevating the fun of watching little green monsters happily vandalize a New York high-rise. I learned the future-focused development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was based squarely upon future president Donald Trump, with his auburn-haired worker Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his second wife Marla Maples. Luckily, Clamp possesses greater compassion than his real-life counterpart.

The “apocalyptic” video Clamp plays during the height of creature carnage? I discovered it was modeled after a actual “Doomsday” video produced by the CNN boss Ted Turner as a contingency for the world actually met its demise. I noticed how Dante took extra pains to film alternate cuts of a meta sequence where Gremlins hijack the actual feature in progress. A version for theaters, another for home video and television, each delivering a smirking slice of fourth-wall-breaking cultural alchemy ahead of its time.

An Enduring Appeal

While it was makeup maestro Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that caught my eye as a child, this deeper gold maintained my fascination as an adult. In time, I even conversed with Dante about it myself and he had no qualms informing me he made the movie with the express purpose of mocking those who loved its absurd-yet-genuine predecessor and desired a sequel. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he happily revealed. This anarchic defiance and determination to not take his sequel as solemnly as his Warner Bros bosses clearly wanted him to, only increased my affection for it.

When I endured a sudden family bereavement recently, I was surprised to find that, during my deepest grief, all I desired to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Strange, isn’t it? Possibly not. The soothing reminiscence it furnished was necessary to dilute my mind’s grief morass – but the insights it had bestowed upon 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 knows it. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to emulate them: accept the turmoil, invest all your resources into tinned provisions and hunting rifles and try not to view the world with undue solemnity.

It’s powerful existential guidance from a most improbable origin – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will always be my comfort movie.