5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's a COMEDY, people., August 24, 2004
C. H. U. D. II: Bud the Chud (David Irving, 1989)
The original C. H. U. D. (for those with short memories, it stands for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers), Douglas Cheek's 1984 basement-budget thriller with a surprisingly high-caliber cast, was my best friend in high school's favorite movie. We must have watched it fifty times over the course of three years. It struck a perfect blend of horror and humor, with enough gross-out to make it a cult favorite from the get-go; it remains so to this day. Somehow, though, I never got round to seeing the sequel till last week. David Irving, who had previously shot the Cannon Movie Tales for the Golan-Globus stable, ventured out on his own for this. It seems he and screenwriter Ed Naha (Dolls, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids) knew they weren't going to be able to pull off the same trick twice, so they did what any self-respecting sequel director would have done: make a comedy.
Multiple Law and Order special guest Gerrit Graham (Beware! The Blob, One True Thing) is Bud, the lone surviving CHUD from the first film. The Army puts him in deep-freeze until they've worked out a few of the program's kinks. Cut to five years later, where school screw-off Steve (Brian Robbins of Head of the Class, now a successful producer-director [Varsity Blues, Popular]) and his industrious pal Kevin (Bill Calvert, who has the distinction of having minor roles-- as different characters-- in both Spider-Man films) have managed to screw up by losing the body the biology class was scheduled to dissect the next day. (My wife pointed out, quite correctly, that storing a dead body in a non-refrigerated warehouse was not a good idea. But I digress.) They need to find another one, quick. "Hey. There's that place on the hill..." You know what's coming next.
The newly-revived Bud falls for Steve's (girl?)friend Katie (Tricia Leigh Fisher, who played the title role in The Making of a Hollywood Madam), and will stop at nothing to get her, not even plowing through the two guys who revived him (for which he does, to be fair, feel a shred of gratefulness). Along the way, of course, he has to turn most of the town into CHUDs as well, because, well, that's what CHUDS do. One also wonders why, if CHUDS reproduce (like most movie monsters that live to reproduce) asexually, Bud is so hot and bothered over Katie. But I digress.
The movie succeeds, for the most part, in keeping the laughs coming, helped out by a stable of minor roles filled by major stars (Robert Vaughn, Bianca Jagger, Larry Linville, Norman Fell, June Lockhart, Larry Cedar, Robert Englund, and a host of others make appearances here). Sure, the humor's somewhat juvenile, but this was a teen flick. Naha took the conventions of the teen horror movie and subtly satirized them, much like he did in Dolls. Combine that with the hair and clothing, which are so painfully bad that even in 1989 they couldn't have been meant as anything but satire, and you have a comedy that works on a number of levels. But if you don't feel like analyzing satire, Bud the Chud is pure, brainless fun, as well. ***
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hey y'all- listen up!, August 25, 2001
A Kid's Review
Okay. Bare in mind this movie has nothing to do with the first chud. No characters, genre (This is comedy) and no tone. Still, for a callback to the late eighties, this rocks. Fans of the video game 'zombies' will notice similarties. This movie is like "encino man" crossed with ""Return of the living dead 3" Also, if this is the same as the tv version, look out for robert englund, with freddy makeup, as a soldier! Muchos laffterr. sincerely the goremeister...
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