🔗 Share this article

“Well, it’s rather brutal here. We’re advising all of our clients to commit their entire holdings into preserved goods and firearms.” That bit of wise counsel comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, speaking, glasses-wearing member of the slimy Gremlin horde that swarms Manhattan’s ultra-modern 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. But, oddly enough, it’s also pretty solid life guidance. Honestly, listen to my reasoning.

When life takes a turn for the worse, the most counterproductive action you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin understands this. In fact, the majority of the toothy monsters that populate Dante’s wild 1990 film (arguably his best) possess the same wry, meta sense of humour regarding the indistinct border separating the mundane and pure pandemonium. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that maintains my loyalty – and with the passage of time, it’s the underlying idea that echoes the loudest.

An Early Life Fixation

Of course, my fondness for this movie didn’t start on such an philosophical plane. In my youth, 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 chunky ex-rental box probably bought from an independent video outlet and featuring grimacing beasts on its knackered cover. I was instantly captivated and these films did not delay lodging themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. After that point, they became an practically routine part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s original commonly garners all the accolades, thanks mostly because of its reputation as a semi-scary seasonal fave – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. However, its successor seldom receives the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels criminal. As a kid, I’d never miss an opportunity to watch Gremlins 2. During long summer holidays, I’d seclude myself indoors and pop it in. When I got my own TV-VHS combo unit, it remained on repeat in my bedroom. With repetition, it ingrained itself in my mental framework. If my parents noticed this obsession, they didn’t seem to mind.

Subtler Rewards and Societal Nuggets

As I grew, new understandings enhanced frequent screenings, amplifying the pleasure of watching diminutive verdant beasts gleefully trash a New York high-rise. I learned the future-focused development mogul and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was based squarely upon the later-to-be-president Donald Trump, with his ginger staff member Marla (Haviland Morris) echoing his second wife Marla Maples. Thankfully, Clamp possesses greater compassion than his real-life counterpart.

The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during peak-Gremlin chaos? I discovered it was modeled after a genuine “Doomsday” video produced by the CNN boss Ted Turner in case the world truly faced apocalypse. I noticed how Dante made a special effort to film varying versions of a meta sequence where Gremlins hijack the very film you’re watching. A version for theaters, one for VHS and TV, each providing a grinning portion of meta pop-culture magic ahead of its time.

A Persistent Influence

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s wonderfully grotesque creatures that drew my gaze as a child, this subsurface richness held my interest as an adult. In time, I even interviewed Dante about it myself and he had no reservations informing me he made the movie with the specific aim of mocking 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 defiance and determination to not take his sequel as solemnly as his Warner Bros bosses clearly wanted him to, only made me love it even more.

When I experienced a sudden family bereavement not long ago, I was astonished to realize that, during my heightest mourning, all I desired to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Weird, right? Possibly not. The nostalgic calm it furnished was needed to dilute my mind’s grief morass – but the insights it had given me as an adult were equally valuable.

Like Gremlins tearing apart a genetics laboratory, there’s some things in life you just are powerless over. Dante is aware of it. The Brain Gremlin knows it too. Sometimes, you have to be like them: embrace the chaos, invest all your resources 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 why Gremlins 2: The New Batch will eternally stand as my feelgood film.