R-Rated Horror Comedy Is One Of The Weirdest Sequels Ever Made

Once upon a time, there was a low-budget movie company called Troma. The company made a name for itself by releasing the vilest, grossest, most depraved horror comedies the world has ever known. Think of the cheapest, most amateur made-for-streaming outing, and you’ll get a good idea of what I’m talking about. If you’re still not quite getting it, go stream Class of Nuke ‘Em High Part 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown on Tubi…oh, and bring a barf bag!

To this day, The Toxic Avenger is the only Troma film with any sort of crossover appeal. Everything else, including James Gunn’s earliest work, resides in the darkest corner of the independent film landscape. Where else would you expect to find a movie with a title like Class of Nuke ‘Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown?

I’m not going to bother running down the plot of the first Nuke ‘Em High because it doesn’t matter. To quote Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, “None of this matters.” The plots of Troma movies always take a back seat to the offensive gore and sexy bits anyway.

Class of Nuke ‘Em High Part 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown‘s plot, as it were, takes place at the newly built Tromaville Institute of Technology. The school’s initials are no accident, by the way. One of the school’s professors has created a race of sub-humanoids—living beings with no emotions and a second mouth on their stomach—that he’s programmed for manual labor. School reporter Roger Smith investigates these new subhumanoids and falls in love with one named Victoria. 

Unfortunately, as the title implies, these subhumanoids have a tendency to “meltdown.” What I mean by that is they will spontaneously start throwing up chunky green goo and smoking while a little green head squeezes its way out of their second mouth. God, I wish I was making that up.

I first saw Class of Nuke ‘Em High Part 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown on the aforementioned USA Up All Night in the early ’90s. Every Friday and Saturday in the wee hours of the morning, the basic cable network USA would show the most low-budget trash movies imaginable in a programming block hosted by the late Gilbert Gottfried. This would usually be either third-rate horny teen comedies or horror movies like Nuke’ Em High.

For some reason, as a dumb tween, I couldn’t get enough of this brain-rotting schlock. Class of Nuke ‘Em High 2, in particular, really resonated with me. Maybe it was the mutant dolphin boy or the giant Kaiju-sized Squirrel that attacked the school. Perhaps it was the grotesque stomach mouthes. Whatever the case, I’ve never quite been able to get the film out of my mind, even after 30 years and tons of therapy.

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I can’t find the movie’s budget online, but I’m sure it was less than a McDonald’s combo meal. Equally telling is the fact that the movie has no critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Class of Nuke ‘Em High 2 really is a cheap, rancid, disgusting abomination of a film. You absolutely have to check it out.

No, seriously, the movie is so bad that it defies explanation. I implore you to watch it for yourself just so you can truly understand what bad cinema is. Class of Nuke ‘Em High 2 is free on Tubi, so you really have no excuse not to at least try to watch it. Just a quick warning, though: the movie is called Class of Nuke ‘Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown, but Tubi has it under Class of Nuke ‘Em High 2: The Good, the Bad, and the Subhumanoid. Why? I have no idea, but somehow, it’s extremely fitting.