1989
Directed by David Irving
Writren by Ed Naha
Starring Brian Robbins, Bill Calvert &Tricia Leigh Fisher
Rated R - Approx 84 Minutes
Vestron Pictures
MCEG
Taglines:
- Their first mistake was stealing a corpse... Their second was waking him up.
- This C.H.U.D.'s for you!
Alternate Titles
A Cidade das Sombras (City of Shadows) - Brazil
Reacción viva (Strong Reaction) - Spain
Kuunpuremat (Bite of the Viper) - Finland
Turbózombi, véruszkár (Turbo Zombie) - Hungary
Das Monster lebt (The Monster Lives) - Germany
"Meat."
- Bud the Chud
C.H.U.D. of course stands for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers. Alternatively, in the first film it also stood for Contamination Hazard Urban Disposal...but there's no mention of that this time around and it's just as well because C.H.U.D. II is nothing like it's predecessor. The first film was a fairly straight forward horror film, where as this film is a straight up horror comedy.
The plot centers around two high school friends who unwittingly unleash a CHUD after stealing it from the CDC. See they accidentally lost a cadaver that was meant for their high school biology class and rather than fess up, they thought it would be a better idea to steal a corpse and replace it.
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| I can never see Robert Vaughn and NOT think of Superman III...... |
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| Bud gets some new duds! |
Steve and Kevin are you're typical 80's best buds. Steve (Brian Robbins, who you fellow children of the 80's may remember best as Eric on the sitcom Head of the Class) is the smart ass, fast talking one who takes nothing seriously and has an answer for everything. Kevin (Bill Cavert) is the quiet, reserved and far more intelligent one that is constantly fixing Steve's messes. There's also Katie (Tricia Leigh Fisher) who is Steve's pseudo-girlfriend (and naturally Kevin really likes her).
After our two heroes steal Bud the Chud, they naturally bring him back to Steve's parent's house to hide until they can bring him to school the next day. Things go wrong when Bud falls into a bubble bath and a hairdryer falls in too, re-animating him. The boys lock Bud in the basement and then leave to get a burger. Bud breaks out and chases the family poodle outside, chomping on it and turning it into a CHUD Doggie. Thus the CHUD contamination begins.
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| Runaway corpse...never going back. Runaway on a wrong way track.... |
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| I'll be honest....I've been in weirder situations.... |
They boys come back to discover their undead guest has escaped and go out looking for him. Meanwhile the military gets Katie's license plate off of security footage from when they hijacked the corpse and Colonel Masters (the one and only Robert Vaughn!) who was heading up the CHUD project is onto the boys. The rest of the film plays out much like three way cat and mouse game between Bud and his every growing army of converted CHUDS, our heroic (sorta) trio and the military.
Gone are the long necked, glowing eyed, slimy CHUDs of the first film. Bud and Co are now grey skinned zombies with messed up teeth. Amusingly, for a film about cannibalistic monsters rampaging in a town, there is not much in the way of the red stuff. When a person is attacked by a CHUD, they pretty much get nibbled on and they turn into a CHUD themselves.
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| CHUDism is on the rise....and they've choreographed their walk! |
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| HELLOOOOOOO KATE!!!!! |
CHUDs have a weakness to extreme cold, so the military uses giant freeze guns to try and contain them, but unfortunately the effects don't last long. How will our heroes overcome the ever growing number of CHUDS? Will the military destroy the whole town? Will the CHUDs take over? Will Keven tell Katie how feels???? Watch C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud to find out!
GORE
As I mentioned earlier, there is not much in the way of the red stuff. Even a scene in which Bud (who has developed a crush on Katie) reaches into his own chest and pulls out his heart to give to her, is completely bloodless.
T&A
No naughty bits on display in this one, either. Though we do get to see Katie in a nice bathing suit, so that's cool To be honest, I'm unsure why this got an R rating. There's some language, but honestly I would have no problem showing this to a bunch of tweens on Halloween.
MONSTERS:
CHUDs! Lots and lots of CHUDs! There's even a CHUDified poodle!
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| CHUD DANCE PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
FINAL THOUGHTS
When I turned 17, I went on a video store binge. I got my own membership to my beloved Video Paradise, but I also went out and got memberships to every other video store that I could find in my area. My wallet was a virtual who's who of video rental stores circa 1996. Video Paradise, Blockbuster, Country Video, Video Corner, Applause Video, Record Town, and a few more that I can't even remember. Their membership cards bulked out my wallet to the Nth degree.
I was completely obsessed with finding new flicks to watch and in the fall of 1996 I could be found making rounds to multiple video stores on a Saturday afternoon, scouring the horror sections for stuff I haven't watched. I remember renting this one from Country Video (a small little video shop on the edge of town) one October weekend. I remember it quite clearly because it was the same weekend that I rented Phantasm II for the first time and because a lifelong Sphere Head. Thus, CHUD II will always hold a special place in my heart because it was the first part of a mid-October double feature that introduced me to The Tall Man.
I still get the warm fuzzies just thinking about it and because of that, I'm sure nostalgia is probably bumping this rating up a a a little bit.
FINAL RATING
THREE OUT OF FIVE PIZZA ROLLS
I only remember this as being kind of awful. lol I've got a copy on one of those Lionsgate 8 Movie Horror Collections, so maybe I'll give it another shot. If you don't already have it, you'd probably love that set. It also includes Waxwork, 976-Evil 2, Ghoulies III, The Unholy, Class Of 1999, Slaughter High, and Chopping Mall. It's only $6.10 on Amazon. I literally haven't seen CHUD II since it was a new release.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it is kinda awful, but for me, I just can't shake the rose tinted glasses that I watch it through. Just thinking about the film fills me with a warm Halloweeny nostalgia. Had I NOT rented the movie that weekend, it very well may have sunk down to two pizza rolls! I do have that collection! As a matter of fact that's what I used to watch the film for the review! There's also a review of Waxwork coming up this morning, so keep your peepers peeled for that!
ReplyDeleteI would say definitely watch it again. Sure, it's not great.....but it does possess a certain charm to it!