Imprinted in My Mind’: Why Gremlins 2: The New Batch Is My Comfort Movie
“Well, conditions are quite harsh here. The guidance we offer all of our clients to put everything they’ve got into canned food and shotguns.” That bit of sage advice comes from the Brain Gremlin – a lab-engineered, articulate, spectacled member of the slick creature crowd that swarms Manhattan’s high-tech Clamp Tower skyscraper in filmmaker Joe Dante’s unhinged continuation Gremlins 2: The New Batch. At first glance, it’s merely an portfolio pointer from one monster to another. However, in a strange manner, it’s also pretty solid existential counsel. Honestly, consider my perspective.
When things go bad, the most counterproductive action you can do is take things too seriously. The Brain Gremlin understands this. In fact, most of the toothy monsters that populate Dante’s unrestrained 1990 movie (arguably his best) possess the same knowing, self-referential comic sensibility regarding the hazy boundary separating daily routine and absolute bedlam. It’s one element of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that ensures my return – and with the passage of time, it’s the underlying idea that echoes the loudest.
A Childhood Fascination
Understandably, my connection with this movie wasn’t born on such an introspective level. As a child, we were limited to a few scratched-up video tapes at home. Included within that collection were Gremlins and its sequel, the latter housed in a thick former-rental sleeve almost certainly acquired from an off-brand video shop and featuring growling monsters on its worn-out artwork. I was right away smitten and these films did not delay lodging themselves inside my young, susceptible psyche. From then on, they became an almost-daily part of my youthful watching schedule.
Dante’s initial installment commonly garners all the plaudits, thanks largely to its legacy as a moderately spooky festive favorite – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched Gremlins on countless occasions. That said, its successor rarely gets the same level of elevated esteem, which feels a travesty. As a kid, I’d invariably jump at the prospect to watch Gremlins 2. During sunny school summer breaks, I’d lock myself inside and play it. When I acquired my personal TV-VHS combo unit, it remained on repeat in my bedroom. Over time, it etched itself permanently in my psyche. If my parents observed this fixation, they didn’t seem to mind.
Hidden Rewards and Cultural Nuggets
As I matured, new revelations enhanced multiple watches, heightening the enjoyment of watching diminutive verdant beasts 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 based squarely upon future president Donald Trump, with his red-headed employee Marla (Haviland Morris) referencing his former spouse Marla Maples. Thankfully, Clamp demonstrates more humanity than his genuine article inspiration.
The “doomsday” video Clamp plays during the height of creature carnage? I discovered it was based on a real-life “Doomsday” video commissioned by the CNN boss Ted Turner in case the world actually met its demise. I noticed how Dante went out of his way to film alternate cuts of a self-aware scene where Gremlins seize control of the exact movie you are viewing. A version for theaters, another for home video and television, each offering a winking bit of self-referential entertainment sorcery before the term was even a thing.
A Persistent Influence
While it was makeup maestro Rick Baker’s wonderfully grotesque creatures that drew my gaze as a child, this deeper gold kept me hooked as an adult. Eventually, I even interviewed Dante about it myself and he had no reservations revealing to me he made the movie with the direct intention of poking fun at those who loved its silly-yet-sincere predecessor and craved further installments. “We were going to make fun of the fact you came to see it,” he happily revealed. This cartoonish defiance and commitment 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 endured a sudden family bereavement not long ago, I was taken aback to discover that, during my heightest mourning, all I felt compelled to do was sit and watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Odd, no? Possibly not. The nostalgic calm it provided was needed to thin out my mind’s mourning mire – but the stuff it had given me as an adult were similarly beneficial.
Like Gremlins tearing apart a genetics laboratory, there’s some things in life you just can’t control. Dante understands this. The Brain Gremlin shares this wisdom. Sometimes, you have to be like them: welcome the pandemonium, commit your entire being into canned food and shotguns and try not to take things too seriously.
It’s strong life advice from a most improbable origin – and it’s the reason Gremlins 2: The New Batch will always be my comfort movie.
