Judging from the extras on the DVD, Ted V. Mikels seems like a nice enough and engaging guy - it's just too bad that in this sequel to his 1972 camp fest he seems to have absolutely no talent as a filmmaker.

While I admit the first movie wasn't that great, I won't deny the fact that I had loads of fun watching it and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys really junky drive-in movies from the 70's. Corpse Grinders II, however, is an often painful 103 minutes I'll never get back.

The non-sensical (and oftentimes plain ridiculous and loose) plot has the cat people from the planet of Ceta sending an agent down to Earth to try and find a food source for their starving people (did I mention they're also caught up in a war with the dog people of planet Traxis?). Luckily for them the nephews of the entrepreneurs of the original film have decided to re-open the Lotus Cat Food Company and have resorted to their Uncle's old ways of gathering together as many corpses as they can (through gravediggers, funeral homes, and the morgue) in order to grind them up to make their highly popular pet food. Also throw into it all a batch of Government agents who want to help the Ceta people out by paying Lotus huge amounts of money to produce large batches of the human filled kitty food and you have what has to be one of the most odd-ball scripted B-movies ever.

Which isn't to say because it's so wacky that it'll be entertaining in a "so bad, it's good" kind of way, because it certainly isn't. If you're not astounded by the camcorder level production values, the godawful special effects (that include some really bad homemade alien headgear and awful computer generated space battles), and the fact Mikels has managed to get almost everyone he knows to play a role in the film (including himself); then you'll probably be too busy wondering how the movie looks even cheaper than the films Mikels made three decades prior.

This is completely embarrassing stuff and is the exact opposite of fellow "Do-It-Yourself" cult favourite director H.G. Lewis's comeback film Blood Feast 2 (that one actually managed to be good). In fact Mikel's attitude of doing almost everything himself is probably the only commendable thing here because the whole thing reeks of inanity and is stuffed to the brim with poor attempts at humour (they try and get the funeral home to use chicken, beef, and pork flavoured embalming fluid) and plenty of "what the?" scenes that include a moment where, for no reason whatsoever, a gray headed alien beams into the bedroom of the gravediggers bedroom to frighten his wife.

And where's those housecat attacks I so enjoyed from the original? (Chris Hartley, 12/13/04)

Directed By: Ted V. Mikels.
Written By: Ted V. Mikels.

Starring: Sean Morelli, Andy Freeman, Chuck Alford, Liz Renay.