🔗 Share this article

“Well, it’s rather brutal here. We’re advising all of our clients to invest all their resources into tinned provisions and hunting rifles.” That bit of shrewd guidance comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, speaking, glasses-wearing member of the slimy Gremlin horde that infests Manhattan’s super-smart Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s unhinged continuation Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Superficially, it’s nothing more than an portfolio pointer from one monster to another. Yet, in a strange manner, it’s also remarkably sound life advice. Seriously, hear me out.

When life takes a turn for the worse, the biggest mistake you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin understands this. Indeed, most of the toothy monsters that populate Dante’s chaotic 1990 feature (arguably his best) possess the same wry, meta comic sensibility regarding the indistinct border separating everyday life and unadulterated chaos. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that keeps me coming back – and with the passage of time, it’s the message that resonates the most.

A Youthful Fascination

Of course, my fondness for this movie did not begin on such an introspective level. Growing up, we possessed merely a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve almost certainly acquired from an non-chain rental store and sporting snarling creatures on its tattered front. I was immediately enamoured and these films quickly proceeded inserting themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. From then on, they became an near-everyday part of my youthful watching schedule.

Dante’s initial installment commonly garners all the accolades, thanks largely to its reputation as a semi-scary seasonal fave – and to be fair, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. That said, its follow-up 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 bright summer vacations, I’d lock myself inside and pop it in. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it continued playing looped in my bedroom. Over time, it ingrained itself in my psyche. If my parents noticed this obsession, they appeared unbothered.

Hidden Discoveries and Societal Nuggets

As I got older, new understandings rewarded frequent screenings, amplifying the pleasure of watching little green monsters gleefully trash a New York high-rise. I learned the future-focused development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was modeled closely on future president Donald Trump, with his ginger staff member Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his second wife Marla Maples. Luckily, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his actual-world equivalent.

The “apocalyptic” video Clamp plays during peak-Gremlin chaos? I discovered it was modeled after a genuine “Doomsday” video produced by the CNN boss Ted Turner should the world really ended. I noticed how Dante took extra pains to film alternate cuts of a self-referential segment where Gremlins take over the exact movie you are viewing. One for cinemas, one for VHS and TV, each offering a winking bit of self-referential entertainment sorcery before the term was even a thing.

A Lasting Legacy

While it was effects expert Rick Baker’s wonderfully grotesque creatures that captured my attention as a child, this subsurface richness held my interest as an adult. In time, I even conversed with Dante about it myself and he had no qualms telling me he made the movie with the specific aim of ridiculing those who loved its silly-yet-sincere predecessor and wanted more. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he cheerfully disclosed. This cartoonish rebelliousness and determination to not take his sequel as gravely as his Warner Bros bosses evidently expected, only made me love it even more.

When I experienced a unexpected loss in the family recently, I was surprised to find that, during my heightest mourning, all I wanted to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Strange, isn’t it? Perhaps not. The comforting familiarity it furnished was needed to dilute my mind’s sadness sludge – but the stuff it had given me as an adult were just as useful.

Like Gremlins running amok in a genetics laboratory, there’s some things in life you just cannot manage. Dante understands this. The Brain Gremlin agrees completely. Sometimes, you have to follow their example: accept the turmoil, commit your entire being into canned food and shotguns and try not to take things too seriously.

It’s strong life advice from a very unlikely source – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will always be my go-to cinematic solace.