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December 26, 2011

Movie Review: Horror of the Hungry Humongous Hungan (1991)

Directed by Richard Gardner
 
Starring Joseph Miller, Brenda Moyer and David Yoakam

Every once in a while you just get lucky, and this weekend was one of those times for me. While scouring through boxes of other peoples cast-off crap at the local swap-meet I found this dvd, covered in dust and what I hoped was just coffee stains. On closer inspection I saw that it was a Troma film from way back in the day, the title was brilliant and I decided to roll the dice with my last 3 dollars. The girlfriend and I sat back a few evenings later without too many expectations and were rewarded with one of the most awesomely bad movies ever made. I know awesome when I smell it and this flick was as fragrant as a freshly picked rose that was just pissed on by a rat-terrier.


It opens up with a narrative by none other then the one and only Jack Palance. Awesome? Oh hell yes! He talks at length about The Hungan, a voodoo priest and various voodoo rituals. Now, in a nut shell, The Hungan is a re-animated corpse brought back to life by a mad scientist in the basement of a hospital. Apon re-animation the Hungan kills the doctor and escapes the hospital to chase after a group of teenagers on a camp-out in the woods.

The Hungan is played by a guy in bad makeup with a giant (obviously) rubber claw and an outstanding Kenny Rodgers wig. The kill scenes are all laughable with my favorite being near the beginning of the movie during a dream sequence where the Hungan is standing over a guy slapping his chest with his rubber claw and then the scene cuts to the victim completely eviscerated, intestines spilling forth unceremoniously. Money!

Beneath the pure rediculousness of it all was a real, raw and creepy 16mm. feel to it. There are just so many great random scenes of unintentional hilarity packed into this movie. If you grew up in the 80's or are just a fan of that era this is a complete blast from the past, from the teenagers running around shirtless with the short-shorts on, to the girls with the huge Aqua-Net hairdo's, its all here. Theres a party scene with a bad 80's hair metal band with a guy running into the room doing an awesome Pee Wee Herman impersonation in the middle of the guitar solo....how could you not love this? And the acting was just bad enough to keep a smile on your face. We laughed with this movie and we laughed at this movie.....hell, we just had a great time and were very sad that it eventually had to end. At 90 minutes long this was an epic by B movie standards and we loved every cheesy, horrible, humongous minute of it.

The Horror of the Hungry Humongous Hungan was an embarrassment of riches for anyone who is a fan of the “Bad Movie” and definitely deserving of some cult status. Look out Plan 9 From Outer Space, you've just been kicked in the balls by a guy with a giant rubber claw wearing a sweet Kenny Rodgers wig.

Through the years I've had an epic love/hate relationship with the films Troma has produced but just for today I fucking love those guys for making this movie & I proudly give The Hungan an 8 out of 10

Reviewed by KennyB

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