A cancer research center is constantly pestered by college students who protest the fact they conduct tests on animals. When the protestors break into the facility, they accidentally unleash some lab rats that ate a bunch of experimental growth hormone. Pretty soon, there’s a bunch of giant rats on the loose and only scientist Paul (Chopping Mall) Coufos can stop them.
I don’t know why they waited thirteen years to make a sequel to Bert I. Gordon’s The Food of the Gods, but I’m kind of glad they did. Directed by Damien (Abraxus, Guardian of the Universe) Lee, Gnaw: Food of the Gods 2 is the kind of bad movie I enjoy. It’s certainly a lot more fun than the original. While the first one had a big-name cast fighting giant chickens, worms, and rats, this one has a bunch of Canadians fighting giant rats. (A scientist does wear a chicken pin on his lab coat, which I think is a nod to the original.)
Oh, and there’s a subplot about a giant toddler too. (Three years before Honey, I Blew Up the Kid.) The effect for the (big) little boy is just as bad as something Gordon would’ve done. You’ve got to love the fact that even though this movie came out thirteen years after the original, they were still using the same (if not worse) effects.
As dumb as a lot of this is, I have to admit it is dumb fun as there is some hilarious stuff here. I especially loved the scene of the hero scientist working in his lab that is scored and edited like a Rocky training montage. I also got a kick out of the exterminator who looks and acts like Clint Eastwood whose preferred method of killing rats is a flamethrower. Then there’s the insane part where a scientist cuts his finger on a slide containing the growth formula mixed with cancer cells and he turns into a giant, pulsating, dripping tumor man! My favorite moment though was when Coufos is having a hot sex dream and then he starts growing to absurd size during sex! Who needs Viagra when you got that experimental growth formula!
More stupid, but irresistible shit: The trusty Jaws subplot that rears its head in the final act. (Maybe they just should’ve called it Gnaws?) Even though there are giant rats on the loose, the dean refuses to close the campus because the synchronized swimming competition must go on as scheduled! I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried, but I’m glad screenwriter Mike Werb (who would go on to write Darkman 3: Die, Darkman! Die! and Face/Off) did.
You’ve got to hand it to Lee. He knows how to stage a giant rat attack. Rats bite hands, maul faces, chomp on necks, and tear off arms. In one scene, a guy gets attacked by a rat while taking a piss. It all ends with a cliffhanger that unfortunately never got paid off. I for one would’ve loved to have seen Chomp: Food of the Gods 3. Heck, I would’ve even settled for Nibble: Food of the Gods 3.
AKA: Food of the Gods 2.
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