Suddard 9: Rise of the Secret Sudciety

Suddard 9: Rise of the Secret Sudciety

Written and directed by Lara Moon in 1996, this film, which later went under the name, Suddard: Rise, continued the story of Old Man Suddard. Two years have passed since the events of Superior Suddard and Suddard has been killing vigorously since then. He has been striking fear into the people of Horton but now he is about to face his greatest challenge yet...

Synopsis

Detective Bing Lee has just moved to the small town of Horton where the anniversary of the first death of Old Man Suddard is conveniently coming up. He is assigned to the Suddard case and sent to investigate the murder of a pair of teenagers up on Makeout Hill. When he gets there, he discovers a group of hooded figures chanting around a fire. They spot him and he only barely escapes.

Meanwhile Suddard has learned of a group of cloaked individuals calling themselves, "The Secret Sudciety", who claim to be followers and worshipers of Suddard who are killing people in Horton and saying that the murders were ordered by him. Suddard plans to hunt them down and eliminate them as they are not the true Suddard.

Suddard is attacked by a masked vigilante calling himself, The Red Sud. The two fight but Red Sud escapes, revealing that he wants to kill Suddard because if the police won't do it then he will.

Bing Lee and Suddard meet briefly and Suddard is wounded with a bullet from Lee's gun. He staggers to an old warehouse where he accidentally stumbles upon a Sudciety meeting. The Sudciety know that even though they follow Suddard, their plans would be ruined if he lived. They attack him but even though vastly outnumbered and wounded, Suddard escapes.

Suddard decides that the only way to stop these various threats is to get some help. He sets up The Suddarhood, a group of trained proffessionals to help him. The team is made up of Sloth, a man who can make everything move really slowly, Windbreaker, who has control over wind and air and is morbidly obese, Lobe, the female telekinetic and Type A, a hunchback with the power to control and project blood. The group go into hiding while they plan their attack.

Bing Lee is pulled off the Suddard case due to lack of Suddard activity and told to investigate into The Red Sud by his heavily smoking Commissioner, Pat. Meanwhile Suddard sends his team after The Sudciety but they are attacked and defeatedby The Red Sud. As it begins to rain, Suddard arrives and battles the Red Sud in the thunderstorm. Suddard wins and unmasked his opponent, revealing The Red Sud to be none other than Bing Lee. Lee wanted to avenge the death of his parents who Suddard had killed years ago. Suddard remembers back and reveals that Lee's parents were one couple that he had never killed. He didn't know who had.

The Sudciety have finished their chant and gained new power and so launch their attack on Horton. Lee forgives Suddard and the two team up and destroy the Sudciety. The Suddarhood go their separate ways and Suddard and Lee call a truce, deciding that the two become allies if anything happens in the future and that Suddard could continue to kill and The Red Sud could continue to protect Horton without getting in each others way. The two part ways and Suddard heads off into the night. High above them, Commissioner Pat watches from a window insinuating that he knows who The Red Sud and Suddard are. The film ends on a cliffhanger.

Trivia

Due to Lara Moon not staying on for the 1998 release of Suddard X, the cliffhanger with Pat was never cinematically resolved. A mini tie in comic was released in 1997 to attempt to solve the story but it and the final scene of the film have since become non canon.

This film features a powerful quote by Suddard. When Sloth asks why the Suddarhood has a female member, Suddard replies with the phrase, "cos I aint a fuckin' sexist like you." This won the support of many feminist activists in the 90s and Suddard went on to be the face of many of these groups. Another quote that stood out was when Commissioner Pat referred to Lee as, "a Bing Lee wanker."

This film won an award for best ensemble cast and best soundtrack for featuring The Spice Girls, "Wannabe".

Some alternate scenes were released that have since been made non canon such as Suddard revealing that he is Lee's father, Sheriff Green is the leader of the Sudciety, Windbeaker is referred to as Joenado and that Type A is somehow a descendant of the villain Count Horton from the comic, OMS: Sundown, (1986).