Rain causes all sorts of problems – car accidents, mudslides, floods, the postponement of a Yanni concert at the Hollywood Bowl and now…alien invasions. Skipping the whole spaceship thing, the aliens in “Chubby Rain” make their way to Earth through droplets of rain, taking over the bodies of anyone unfortunate enough to swallow any of the fatter than the usual drops, the chubby rain. Things start looking bleak when after a major rainstorm, seemingly random people begin turning into brain dead zombies who do what zombies do best, feast upon the flesh of the living. Fortunately, the human race has a savior, a reluctant savior by the name of Keith Kincaid. With a name like that, you gotta figure the fate of humanity is gonna land in your lap sooner or later.
Keith doesn’t like it, but he’s been waiting for this invasion for two years. It all came to him one evening while watching “Putney Swope” backwards – a message warning of the rain traveling extra-terrestrials. Keith has tried to show others his discovery, but no one ever wants to watch “Putney Swope”, especially backwards. So, regarded as a moron by society, Keith locks himself away and works on his website The Post-Mortem Adventures of Ted Knight.com. But then the aliens finally arrive and Keith must come to the Earth’s rescue because not only does “Putney” backwards reveal the alien invasion, but it also relays how to put it to a stop and that’s to resurrect a drive-in to show a midnight screening of “Mask.” The sight of Rocky Dennis will drive the alien zombies to spontaneously combust. It’s a massive loss of human life, but that’s what you get for sticking your tongue out in the rain. So, finding himself on the run from a growing population of alien zombies, Keith must find Joe Bob Briggs, the one and only man who can aid him in his mission.
It’s kinda hard not to like a movie as absoludicrous as this one, unless it has Martin Short in it. I don’t think that guy has ever been funny. Anyways, this film is all over the place and is filled with tons of laughs, but I don’t think too many of them are intentional. A lot of the laughs come from the horrible make-up work that makes the Swamp Thing creature suit in Wes Craven’s film look brilliant. When shot or stabbed, these alien zombies melt down, which would be kinda cool if the effects didn’t make them look like a bunch of sweaty people with Silly Putty smeared all over them.
The filmmaking is pretty rancid as well. It’s like director Bowfinger pulled a bunch of guys off the side of the road to be his crew. It’s a complete wreck for sure, but damn is it funny.
Not only is “Chubby Rain” a side-splitter, but it’s also a fond tip of the hat to drive-in theaters of yesteryear. Check this out. Kincaid finally manages to wrangle all of the alien zombies into the drive-in lot where they are forced to watch “Mask”. Just as Rocky Dennis says, “My Mom says I look like a lion,” the once human creatures begin to explode in a barrage of gore. Just as this starts to happen, we cut to a weird shot of Ted Knight in his coffin going, “YAAAAAY!” We then cut back to the carnage until the alien horde is dead. From atop the movie screen, Kincaid screams to the heavens, “Gotcha suckas!” Then, being that it was a drive-in theater that saved the world, drive-ins all over the world reopen just in case another alien invasion occurs.
Crazy stuff. And here I thought I was gonna watch a film about a fat Prince trying to drown his sorrows over his dead father by throwing down an ungodly amount of Ho Ho’s.
