Review: Vestron gets cheeky with 'C.H.U.D. II' & 'Return of the Living Dead 3'
Posted Tuesday, November 22, 2016 at 3:53 PM Central
Last updated Tuesday, November 22, 2016 at 5:05 PM Central
by John Couture
I grew up on horror films. It was the late 1980s and I was in the throes of puberty, but for me, my first love was horror.
Granted, over the years, I have gravitated away from horror as a genre and more towards serious and interesting films, but I will always have a soft spot for horror films in my heart. As I would learn later, the late 1980s was a bizarre time for horror films as slasher franchises were reaching the tipping point and comedy was starting to find a real foothold in the genre.
I'm talking about films such as House II: The Second Story that took more mainstream elements of their predecessor films and injected a healthy dose of comedy. Ghoulies II. Leprechaun II. These are the types of films that I grew up on and shaped a large part of my taste in films - for better or worse.
During this time, there was one video company that was unwittingly responsible for many of the films that I grew up watching, Vestron Video. So, when I heard that Lionsgate was resurrecting the label to release special edition Blu-ray versions of Vestron's cult classic horror films, I was extremely giddy.
Much like the zombies in many of their films, Vestron was returning from the dead to seek new victims (fans). While I hope that this Vestron Video Collector's Series will introduce new audiences to their particular brand of horror, the releases truly are collectibles for us diehard fans.
Enter the third wave of releases. After Chopping Mall, Blood Diner and the Waxwork films, the latest offerings fit right in. This week, the world is reacquainted with C.H.U.D. II: Bud The Chud and Return Of The Living Dead 3 and we will never get that "Bud the Chud" song out of our heads again.
Whether intentional or not, the pairing of these two films is a great inside joke for those of us familiar with the tangled tale of their original release. The old story goes (although it has been denounced recently by the original filmmakers) that the script of C.H.U.D. II was originally conceived as a sequel to Return Of The Living Dead, Part II. When filmmakers involved with the The Return of the Living Dead passed, Vestron retooled the script as a sequel to one of its other properties, C.H.U.D.
Because, you know, zombies and cannibals are basically the same things, right?
When you watch C.H.U.D. II with this information in mind, the film actually makes more sense. It's much closer in tone to the Return of the Living Dead movies and there are several zombie nuances that were unique to that world (eating brains, referring to them as meat) that suddenly show up in C.H.U.D. II.
So, whether the story is true or not, these two films have a shared history and their pairing this week is yet another tongue-in-cheek joke that has come to epitomize this unique genre. And while we can disagree on whether these films are indeed cult classics, there's no debating that these special edition versions are the best possible options out there for these films.
For instance, the Return Of The Living Dead 3 Blu-ray features the uncut version of the film that features the full film before it was butchered to get its R-rating from the MPAA. Interestingly, the film could also be a case study in the changing mores of our country. If I had to guess, the uncut version of Return Of The Living Dead 3 would be considered a hard PG-13 today.
Both Blu-rays are packed with extra goodies that will delight both old fans and new. The audio commentaries and interviews on both films do a great job of placing them in the context of the evolution of horror films. Without these two films, do we get to Scream and the resurgence of horror films at the turn of the century?
Both of these films are worthy additions to the Vestron Video Collector's Series and allow connoisseurs to fully enjoy these films for perhaps the first time ever. Hopefully, if this series proves to be a hit, we will eventually see other Vestron classics such as Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat and The Unholy.
