Embedded in My Psyche’: Why Gremlins 2: The New Batch Is My Comfort Movie
“Well, the situation is pretty dire here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to commit their entire holdings into canned food and shotguns.” This piece of wise counsel comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, talking, bespectacled member of the slimy Gremlin horde that swarms Manhattan’s ultra-modern Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s unhinged continuation Gremlins 2: The New Batch. At first glance, it’s merely an financial suggestion from one monster to another. However, curiously, it’s also pretty solid life advice. Honestly, hear me out.
When things go bad, the biggest mistake you can do is approach matters with excessive gravity. The Brain Gremlin comprehends this. In fact, a large portion of the fang-bearing creatures that populate Dante’s chaotic 1990 feature (arguably his best) possess the same sly, self-aware comic sensibility regarding the hazy boundary separating the mundane and pure pandemonium. It’s one element of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that keeps me coming back – and the older I get, it’s the theme that strikes the deepest chord.
An Early Life Fixation
Naturally, my attachment to this movie wasn’t born on such an philosophical plane. In my youth, we were limited to 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 almost certainly acquired from an off-brand video shop and featuring snarling creatures on its tattered front. I was immediately enamoured and these films wasted no time inserting themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. From then on, they became an almost-daily part of my childhood viewing routine.
Dante’s initial installment typically gets all the plaudits, thanks largely to its status as a moderately spooky festive favorite – and let me be clear, I’ve watched Gremlins an incalculable number of times. That said, its follow-up seldom receives the same level of lofty appreciation, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d always seize the chance to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d retreat into the house and play it. When I obtained my very own TV-VHS combo unit, it stayed in constant rotation in my bedroom. With repetition, it etched itself permanently in my psyche. If my parents detected this preoccupation, they gave no indication of concern.
Deeper Discoveries and Cultural Easter Eggs
As I got older, new understandings enhanced multiple watches, heightening the enjoyment of watching diminutive verdant beasts happily vandalize a New York high-rise. I learned the ahead-of-its-time property magnate 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) referencing his second wife Marla Maples. Fortunately, Clamp has more heart than his genuine article inspiration.
The “end of civilisation” 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 alternate cuts of a self-aware scene where Gremlins seize control of the actual feature in progress. One for cinemas, one for VHS and TV, each delivering a smirking slice of meta pop-culture magic ahead of its time.
A Persistent Influence
While it was creature designer Rick Baker’s gloriously nasty-looking creatures that drew my gaze 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 mocking those who loved its goofy-but-heartfelt predecessor and desired a sequel. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he cheerfully disclosed. This Looney Tunes-esque defiance and commitment to not take his sequel as solemnly as his Warner Bros bosses evidently expected, only deepened my appreciation further.
When I experienced a unexpected loss in the family recently, I was taken aback to discover that, during my most profound sorrow, 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 thin out my mind’s sadness sludge – but the insights it had given me as an adult were similarly beneficial.
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, commit your entire being into preserved goods and firearms and try not to view the world with undue solemnity.
It’s strong life advice from a highly unexpected fountain – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will forever remain my comfort movie.
