C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud - Not up to the original

I like to think that I knew what I was getting when I decided to watch 'Chud II.' I knew it was an old horror film from the eighties with minimal budget and no big name actors. I expected it to be a little bit tacky and a lot cheesy. I've watched and loved such (bad!) classics such as ‘Critters, Ghoulies, Killer Klowns’ and ‘Chopping Mall’ – all of which were – technically – awful, but still incredibly enjoyable in a 'so-bad-it's-good' kind of way.

Sadly, ‘Chud II’ does not even fall into that category.  For a start, I enjoyed the first ‘C.H.U.D.’ film – which was a dark tale about monsters living in the New York sewers and a band of people trying to expose a conspiracy behind them.  So, I was expecting more of the same.  However, what I got was a totally different film that’s (hardly) anything to do with the original (think the way ‘Trolls 2’ wasn’t really anything to do with ‘Trolls’).

‘Chud 2’ isn’t awful; it's just a bit dull really. It doesn't have the budget to be overly horrific (or even a little scary). Instead, it tries to be funny, but somehow that just doesn't work. It's about a couple of teenagers who steal the military's last Chud (or 'zombie' as we know them) and accidentally unleash it on the town.

Therefore, everyone in the way gets bit and subsequently turned into yet more hungry flesh-eaters. So the story isn't that original, but, if it was handled a little bit better, it might at least have been fun. As it was, it just felt forced and something trying desperately to be really funny and failing at ever point.   The budget is low, but I’ve seen plenty of low budget films which at least manage to use what limited funds they have to pull off some gory effects.  Don’t expect that here.  Everything is totally played for laughs (which often fall flat) and it’s almost like ‘Return of the Living Dead (for kids!).

There aren’t any big name actors in the film who you’ll know, but at least the man who plays the main ‘CHUD’ does his best with what he’s given – which is mainly ‘physical’ humour and pulling funny faces.  About the only actor you may know is Robert Vaughn who is probably the only one who knows about comic timing.  Although his character does tend to ‘chew up the scenery’ a bit and overact, he’s definitely the best person when it comes to delivering his lines.

There are plenty more classic eighties horrors out there which are much better than this. Stick with one of those.

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back