Thursday, October 3, 2013

C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud (1988)

For anyone who doesn't know, C.H.U.D. stands for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller, which would make sense based on the cover, as well as the previous movie which took place in the New York underground. However this movie takes place in a small town, only has one Chud, and is a horror comedy.  So if you haven't seen the first one, it's not that big a deal because it's a sequel in name only.

In a highly improbable turn of events, brainy Kevin and wise guy Steve accidentally bump into a gurney with a corpse that their high school science teacher is planning to have them study the next day. (I love how the teacher left an unrefrigerated corpse in a back room with only a sheet over it). The gurney careens off the loading dock of the school, flies down the street and disappears.

While trying to figure out how to tell their teacher they lost the corpse, Steve comes up with the idea of getting another one to replace it.  So along with their friend Katie, they drive up to the Center for Disease Control and steal a corpse from a sealed bubble. Unfortunately it turns out to be the last Chud on Earth who was put in a deep freeze for future study.

While trying to smuggle it into the Steve's home and find a place to keep it without anyone noticing, they accidentally reanimate it.  Mulleted Steve thinks they're bound to get some sort of prize for such a great scientific discovery, but Kevin isn't so sure it's a good idea to keep it. Before they know it, Bud the Chud has escaped and is causing havoc all over town.

When the government discovers the theft, they send the military after the teens since they have been experimenting on Bud with illegal neuro-toxins in an attempt to make an undead warrior.  Isn't that always the way?  But

I was expecting a horror movie since the first one was not a comedy.  So it was a disappointment when Steve started acting like the wisecracking, clean cut, semi-bad boy of the film.  He spends a lot of time spouting off typical teen comedy style jokes which had me rolling my eyes.  But I have to admit there were other things in the movie that surprisingly made me laugh.  Plus it has Robert Vaughn as the Colonel and a scene with a poodle eating a mailman. This involves the little dog launching through the air like something out of Monty Python. It definitely looks funny to see a tiny poodle dragging a  screaming mailman off into the bushes.

No comments: