Suddard 12: Fear

Suddard 12: Fear

Old Man Suddard's twelfth outing came from the return of director Tommy Tucker and was released in cinemas under the name Suddard: Fear in the UK and Suddard 12: Fear in the USA. It came out in 2002 and further looked at the origin of the character of Old Man Suddard.

Synopsis

Suddard finds himself teaming up with Tequila Mockingbird and Bing Lee when the three of them coincidentally run into each other during an attempt to stop an alleyway mugging. The mugging is quickly stopped when Suddard brutally beats the muggers and leaves them in a bloody mess. Soon after this, a lightning storm starts, something that seems to deeply bother Suddard, much to the confusion of the others. Suddard leaves quickly, running back to his swamp and locking it. He is visibly frightened. Tequila follows him, worried and confronts him by smashing the door to his swamp. Suddard freaks out and warns her that this was a very bad idea. Suddard knocks out Tequila and ties her to a chair. He gets ready to fight. Suddenly a hooded man appears and attacks Suddard. This man reveals himself as Azmuth, Suddard's brother, who has come to destroy him. Suddard is knocked unconcious by Azmuth and is about to be killed when he has a flashback that has been repressed for many years. It reveals that Suddard and Azmuth used to play together regularly but after a freak lightning storm, Azmuth was struck by lightning and killed. As he died, he vowed to get revenge on Suddard for letting him die.

Back in the present, Tequila has broken free and knocked Azmuth away from Suddard. Suddard shouts, having remembered the past he had with his brother, the only man he has ever feared and tells her not to go near him. Azmuth and Tequila fight but Azmuth uses his blades to impale and kill her. Suddard is visibly shaken but as the storm ends, Azmuth vanishes. It is revealed that Azmuth can only return to life when the lightning is raging. Suddard holds Tequila's corpse as Bing Lee arrives. Bing Lee attacks Suddard, believing that he killed her out of jealousy due to the fact that Tequila is sleeping with Lee.

Suddard fights him off but Bing Lee eventually believes him. The two decide to team up and defeat Azmuth. Suddard realises that when his brother is around, he can remember his past and therefore may be able to learn his true origin. This is due to their Suddardy bond. By coincidence, another storm comes the following night but Azmuth manages to kill Bing Lee as well due to Suddard being frozen with fear. Suddard barely escapes with his life and a memory of him having a conversation with a shadowed version of his father, when Azmuth shatters Suddard's spine over his knee. Determined to avenge his friends and learn his origin, Suddard heads out to overcome his fear and fix his crippled spine. He does so with the help of an elderly man in the mountains of Nepal.

The man helps to heal Suddard's back and fear quickly but when Azmuth murders the old man, Suddard fights back. After a brutal battle, Suddard manages to impale Azmuth who reveals that when he dies, he can bring back all those who have died excluding the old man. Suddard is cool with this but as Azmuth repents and forgives Suddard, he dies, making it so Suddard doesn't know his origin other than one last memory of Suddard in a woman's arms as a baby. Suddard returns to the swamp to see that Tequila and Lee are alive. The two are having sex and Suddard watches, finally over his fear.

Trivia

Tommy Tucker wanted an origin story for Suddard but wanted to make sure that it was truly canon. Azmuth was made especially for this film and was later made non canon outside of this film.

Patty Rick played the roles of both Suddard and Azmuth and won an award for both.

This film has been the lowest grossing Suddard film to date having only taken eight million at the box office.

An Asmuth spin-off comic was released in conjunction with the film. The first issue had one million limited edition copies printed with a die-cut holographic cover.