🔗 Share this article

“Well, the situation is pretty dire here. We’re advising all of our clients to put everything they’ve got into canned food and shotguns.” That bit of shrewd guidance 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 zany follow-up Gremlins 2: The New Batch. At first glance, it’s simply an financial suggestion from one monster to another. Yet, curiously, it’s also surprisingly sturdy life guidance. Truly, consider my perspective.

When things go bad, the biggest mistake you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin grasps this. Actually, the majority of the fang-bearing creatures that occupy Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (arguably his best) possess the same wry, meta comic sensibility regarding the hazy boundary separating the mundane and absolute bedlam. It’s a single component of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and with the passage of time, it’s the theme that resonates the most.

A Youthful Fascination

Understandably, my fondness for this movie didn’t start on such an philosophical plane. As a child, we only had a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its follow-up, the latter housed in a bulky previously-rented case almost certainly acquired from an non-chain rental store and sporting snarling creatures on its tattered front. I was instantly captivated and these films did not delay embedding themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. From then on, they became an almost-daily part of my childhood viewing routine.

Dante’s initial installment commonly garners all the praise, thanks largely to its legacy as a partly frightening holiday classic – and let me be clear, I’ve watched Gremlins more times than I can count. Nevertheless, its follow-up infrequently obtains the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels unjust. As a kid, I’d invariably jump at the prospect to watch Gremlins 2. During long summer holidays, I’d seclude myself indoors and stick it on. When I acquired my personal TV-VHS combo unit, it stayed in constant rotation in my bedroom. With repetition, it became deeply rooted in my mindset. If my parents observed this fixation, they didn’t seem to mind.

Deeper Delights and Cultural References

As I matured, new insights enriched repeat viewings, elevating the fun of watching small emerald creatures joyously wreck a New York high-rise. I learned the ahead-of-its-time real estate tycoon and Clamp Tower owner, Daniel Clamp (John Glover), was modeled closely on the later-to-be-president Donald Trump, with his red-headed employee Marla (Haviland Morris) referencing his second wife Marla Maples. Thankfully, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his genuine article inspiration.

The “apocalyptic” video Clamp plays during the height of creature carnage? I discovered it was based on a genuine “Doomsday” video created by the CNN boss Ted Turner should the world really ended. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film alternate cuts of a self-referential segment where Gremlins seize control of the exact movie you are viewing. An edit for movie houses, one for VHS and TV, each delivering a smirking slice of self-referential entertainment sorcery ahead of its time.

A Persistent Appeal

While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s wonderfully grotesque creatures that drew my gaze as a child, this deeper gold held my interest as an adult. Eventually, I even conversed with Dante about it myself and he had no hesitation telling me he made the movie with the express purpose 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 happily revealed. This Looney Tunes-esque defiance and commitment to not take his sequel as seriously as his Warner Bros bosses clearly wanted him to, only increased my affection for it.

When I went through a sudden family bereavement 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. Odd, no? Maybe not. The nostalgic calm it offered was essential to thin out my mind’s mourning mire – but the perspectives it had given 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 is aware of it. The Brain Gremlin knows it too. Sometimes, you have to follow their example: welcome the pandemonium, invest all your resources into tinned provisions and hunting rifles and try not to take things too seriously.

It’s strong life advice from a highly unexpected fountain – and it’s why Gremlins 2: The New Batch will eternally stand as my go-to cinematic solace.