What's Up, Hideous Sun Demon

My review was written in September 1989 after a Greenwich Village screening.

This revamped version (with silly voice dubbing) of Robert Clarke's 1959 monster pic packs enough belly laughs to merit midnight bookings, as well as serving to renew interest in the campy original.

Already parodied in the '60s by amateur filmmaker Don Glut, Clarke's "The Hideous Sun Demon" was redubbed in a "Special Edition" prepared between 1983 and 1986 but never released. This 1989 second re-do is in the vein of Woody Allen's famous dub job "What's Up, Tiger Lily?".

In his film, Clarke toplines as a research scientist exposed to radioactive isotopes that cause him to regress into a humanoid reptilian monster when exposed to direct sunlight. Melodramatic plot has him falling in love with statuesque torch singer Nan Peterson, but ultimately destroyed in a cheapie climax reminiscent of Raoul Walsh's classic "White Heat" set atop a vast gasoline storage tower.

Satirist Craig Mitchell makes fun of the cornball story and shoestring-budget footage, emphasizing lots of stiff reaction shots (original was lensed during 12 weekends on a budget undr4 $50,000). New dialog brings out front the sexually risque material of the original (Peterson is an impressive '50s bombshell) while hilariously adding drug references. One side-splitting sequence takes innocent footage of a cute little girl and her mom, turning it into a hip, Cheech & Chong-style drugged-out rap routine.

Jay Leon (uncredited) is hilarious dubbing Clarke's role and providing off-the-wall narration, while Susan Tyrrell is a perfect choice for re-doing Peterson'' role and her "Strange Pursuit" ballad number. Several new b&w insert shots matched to the original are funny, but a color prolog of college kids (including Googy Gress and Mark Holton) watching Clarke's film on the late show is a pointless framing device.

Fans are advised to also check out the original (also distributed by Wade Williams) which feature excellent exterior photography (including work by Vilis Lapienieks) and actually is funnier in its integral nightclub scenes (where Peterson's fake keyboard moves are a hoot) than the new version.

When tracing down this movie it may have various dates and titles.

Revenge of the Sun Demon (1993) - the one I watched What's Up, Hideous Sun Demon - various dates as (1989)

Portia: The quality of mercy is not strain' d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

The Merchant of Venice Act 4, scene 1, 180-187

For a connoisseur of such films as What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966) you may be a tad disappointed as in this movie they had to add scenes and run the film backward to get the effect, they needed to match the dialog.

The basic story is of a suntan lotion that went awry. The film is chock full of cheap secondary sexual innuendos.

There are a few positives to note: Jay Leno is the voice of Ishmael Pivnik the Sun Demon.

Googy Gress a versatile actor plays Chet.

See him again in Vibes (1988) with Cyndi Lauper.

I found this on DVD at a local store and (after some delay at checkout because it wasn't in their system, resulting in me getting it at half the marked price) gave it a spin. The DVD cover and disc do identify the title as "Revenge of the Sun Demon", but the on-screen title is "What's Up, Hideous Sun Demon?" Title confusion aside, it's a pretty enjoyable film. I was rather fearing it would be poorly-done when I read the description on the back of the DVD but had bought it anyways being a massive fan of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (plus my brother and I used to turn the sound off on bad movies when we were kids and did our own dialog). Also the DVD cover described the film as quite raunchy, with the main character on a quest for sex the entire movie (I guess I'm a prude but I don't like "sexy" movies). While the guy was interested in sex, I don't feel that that dominated the movie, and the raunchiest moment was the very brief appearance of a huge sex toy, as mentioned by another reviewer, in a piece of new footage spliced into the original film.

If you are a fan of B-movies and more importantly, making fun of B-movies, this movie is for you!

I grew up in Kansas City and saw this movie at the same theatre as the person who previously commented on the film. It's one of the funniest movies ever, and deserves a higher cult status. I really wish it was available on video because everyone needs to see this movie!

What's Up, Hideous Sun Demon (1983)

1/2 (out of 4)

Good Lord, what an incredibly stupid idea this was. In the pre-MST3K days, sometimes older films would be redubbed as "comedies" and that's what this thing in. The cult classic The Hideous Sun Demon was redubbed by several comedians and this is the final project. The dubbing was done to add a bunch of sex jokes and that sort of stuff but this piece of crap isn't nearly as funny as the original film. There's no point in talking about the other film because its just in the background here. The dubbed comedy lines fall flat for the most part. Jay Leno (yep, that Leno) does the main voice but you can tell he was a long way from where he is now. Not even interesting as a curiosity thing.