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Chud [VHS]

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When you think of the 1984 horror movie "C.H.U.D.," try and think of an old 1950s or 1960s atomic bomb crazed monster movie. The only difference is that they updated the concept to fit the late 1970s and early 1980's fear of nuclear waste. Most long time fans of horror-I'm talking about fans old enough to watch this junk on cable television around the same time MTV appeared on the scene-have seen this movie before. In some ways, it's a classic even though it isn't particularly gory or scary. I can't tell you how many people I have ran into in the intervening years who have mentioned this movie when a discussion turns to horror films. I always nod my head in understanding and then try to drop in a few titles that better represent the horror franchise. Still, "C.H.U.D." is a charming little film that every new aficionado of shriek cinema should see, and since good old Anchor Bay released it on DVD with a great picture transfer and several fun extras, there's simply no excuse not to watch this one in the near future. It's been years since I saw it, and I was greatly surprised at how much I had forgotten. It's always nice to revisit old friends, eh?

Set in the gritty and grimy streets of New York City, "C.H.U.D." We soon learn something isn't quite right in the city that never picks up after itself. George Cooper (John Heard), a big shot photographer working on a new project concerning the homeless, starts hearing things about missing people. Intrigued, and worried considering some of the vanishing are people he has worked with recently, he decides to quietly start investigating the disappearances. Meanwhile, a city cop named Bosch, whose own wife vanished without a trace some time before, begins assembling reports on sudden disappearances. His superiors could care less since nearly all of these people are vagrants and similar forgettables. Captain Bosch perseveres, always remembering the grief and horror over his own personal tragedy. In order to get information, the good cop pays a visit to A.J. Shepard (Daniel Stern), affectionately known on the street as "The Reverend," a man who runs a soup kitchen to feed the poor. Shepard isn't happy about seeing Bosch, and only reluctantly agrees to help when the cop emphasizes he is truly sincere about solving the mystery. It isn't too long before Cooper, Shepard, and Bosch join forces to defeat an evil lurking under the streets of the city. What could possibly dwell in the sewers under New York City? Why, something called C.H.U.D., of course! When Cooper goes underground to check on one of his pals, he discovers that monsters have been preying on the homeless. These people are so scared they've started arming themselves in order to fend off the evil ones.

The photographer takes a picture of one of the mutilated corpses he finds in the sewer, pictures that ultimately end up in the hands of Shepard and Bosch as they take their case to the chief of police, the mayor, and the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, a guy named Wilson. After an attempt to stonewall these three heroes fails (Shepard threatens to go to the newspapers), Wilson reluctantly reveals that the C.H.U.D. are something called cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers. Wilson claims a small amount of nuclear waste leaked into the sewers of New York and turned a few vagrants into ravenous, glowing eyed monsters with a fondness for human flesh. A mission to flush out the monsters with flamethrowers fails miserably, so it's up to our three heroes to do the job themselves. The C.H.U.D. aren't about to take any attempts to eradicate them lying down, and eventually move aboveground to wreak mayhem on the innocent residents of the city. More painful truths come out when Shepard and Cooper discover that Wilson lied about the toxic waste leak, a truth that is much worse and one that paints the bureaucrat in an extremely unfavorable light. Expect to see plenty of explosions, fires, and general carnage before the credits roll.

"C.H.U.D." is one of those fun movies you just can't help but chuckle over as you watch. The success of the film is mostly due to the cast, especially Daniel Stern as the frenetic A.J. Shepard. The Reverend is a cranky, anti-authoritarian type who just loves to cause trouble. His haircut, a cross between Mark Twain and Don King, adds to the general sense of ridiculousness. When he goes mano a mano with the evil Wilson, you know the common man will finally get his due. Of course, John Heard isn't a slouch either as the outraged George Cooper. Christopher Curry adds a bit of seriousness as the inquisitive Captain Bosch. Be sure and look for John Goodman and Jay Thomas as two cops unfortunate enough to have an encounter with a C.H.U.D. in a diner. The only disappointments in the movie are the lack of gore and the short screen time allotted to the creatures. More C.H.U.D. and fewer messages about the threat of bureaucratic conspiracy and nuclear waste disposal would have made for a better horror film.

Once again, Anchor Bay turned out a great disc. There's a trailer, special effects stills, and an excellent commentary track from director Douglas Cheek, John Heard, Christopher Curry, and Daniel Stern. These guys have a lot of fun taking potshots at the movie and it's amusing to listen to them. Another plus is the amazing picture transfer and audio quality (crystal clear, folks). You just gotta love that cheesy '80s synth score! If you haven't seen "C.H.U.D.," get cracking. This movie definitely falls quite high on the "must see" list. It's not gory and not scary, but it is loads of fun.

C.H.U.D. is a brilliant cult classic 80's horror film that I remember watching when I was a kid, I used to have this on vhs along with the awful sequel called C.H.U.D.2: Chud The Bud. What I've noticed about this dvd is that the film is completely uncut and seems to be much longer than the previous version which is great, there were a couple of gore scenes that were cut along with the bloody shower scene. Anchor Bay did a terrific job transferring this film and the picture quality was high, there wasn't any blurry images or maybe that was from my old vhs. Anyway the plot was about some bad government guys who are dumping toxic waste beneath the sewers in New York thus transforming homeless people into C.H.U.D.s (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers) weird reptilian monsters with glowing eyes and taste for human flesh.

A soup chef played by Daniel Stern is concerned about his missing customers who are basically homeless people living on the streets, he decides to report this to the police and the police commissioner (Christopher Curry) who is also a friend of his investigates the case since there also seems to be a couple of mysterious deaths, along with a former fashion photographer (John Heard) their investigations all leads in the same direction.... the sewers!. They soon uncover a plot by the government to cover-up some of their dirty wok. Yes the premise was extremely cheesy but you gotta love it, it was a great cult classic horror flick with some nice and dark atmosphere and good locations and the acting from most of the cast was pretty good. The fx on the creatures does look abit outdated but they were great for the time and not to mention the film had a low budget.

Director Douglas Cheek balances some of the over the top cheesy monster fx and humor (The New York City Police Department has flamethrowers lol) with some serious scenes and there was an unnecessary subplot about George the photographer (John Heard) who is trying to support his pregnant model girlfriend which I thought dragged on a bit it was slightly boring, the movie would've done better without that scene. Anyway C.H.U.D. was great fun but the sequel sucked, it was more of a comedy and was completely unfunny so its better to avoid it and watch the first C.H.U.D. instead, oh yeah I almost forgot to mention that the monsters have the ability to stretch there necks to a long height without any explanation, yep it's a hoot!.

Admit it, you love C.H.U.D. Hell, every healthy red blooded American does. It's the story of toxic waste that's turning homeless folks who live underground into glowing eyed beasties that rise from the sewers.......AND KILL!!!! A fashion photographer, a paranoid hippie and a police captain all find out about this, as well as the government coverup. These three characters all have run ins with the creatures at various points. The police captain is trying to do what he can within his power, and the photographer(John Heard) and the paranoid hippie(Daniel Stern) take to the sewers and find out just what C.H.U.D really is. There's also a subplot involving Heard and his fashion model girlfriend. It doesn't seem terribly necessary, but it's a painless addition to the movie and develops Heard's character a bit more.
This is one of those rare B monster movies that many critics actually liked. It's easy to see why because it's handled quite well. The acting, writing and directing are better than one would expect from this kind of film. Besides the concept of toxic waste monsters and a few other things, the movie doesn't really come across as campy or laughably bad(you know it has something going for it if my mother stayed up til 2am to watch it). The subject matter is treated with as much realism as possible, but a few chuckles do slip through when they creatures are onscreen. That's another thing, don't expect to see alot of the creatures. There's actually quite a bit of dialogue in this film and the actual creature carnage is kept to a minimum. The movie focuses a bit more on the investigation and coverup of the situation. There is one out of place scene with Heard's girlfriend that exists solely for more C.H.U.D screen time. This scene brings to mind the Hare Krishna zombie scene from Dawn of the Dead. It doesn't seem within the C.H.U.D's modus operandi to go exploring apartment complexes, but at least we get to find out that they can stretch their necks to absurd lengths.
C.H.U.D. is definitely a classic. If you missed it as a kid, it's better late than never to catch it now, coz as you can probably guess, some pinheaded schmuck is remaking it.

For those of you, like me, who felt that the original version of C.H.U.D. was really lacking in many ways may find this unlabelled director's cut quite a welcome surprise. The changes include a few extra character development scenes, a different ending, and some original scenes that appear in a different order. These changes helped this pulpy gem stand a bit higher than its b-grade horror bretheren. Plus, the monster effects are very ambitious. All-in-all, a fun movie to watch with friends.

C.H.U.D. is one of those hard to find horror gems from the 80's that still remains fun to watch today. John Heard stars as a New York City photographer who, along with a cook (Daniel Stern) and a police captain (Christopher Curry), uncover that the homeless living in the sewers are being mutated into hideous, cannibalistic monsters thanks to the dumping of toxic waste underground. These "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers" (hence the title of the film) soon start coming to the surface, and they're quite hungry too. Though C.H.U.D. is a bonafide B-movie creature feature, the crew makes the most out of the small budget with imaginitive creature and gore effects, great shots of New York City, and a cast that is surprisingly good to boot. Though it's happy ending detracts from the tone of the rest of the film, C.H.U.D. remains one of the best and most overlooked horror films to come out of the early 80's. Look for a young John Goodman as an unlucky cop in the diner.

Of all the great "guilty pleasure" Saturday afternoon monster matinee features I watched when I was growing up, Doug Cheek's "C.H.U.D." remains one of the most memorable. While it's not quite on the entertaining level of cult classics like "Return Of The Living Dead" and "Alligator", both of which it bares similiar resemblances to, though to be fair, "Return" did come after it, "C.H.U.D." is a fool's treasure in cinematic cheese.

This B-movie gem revolves around a top secret batch of toxic waste that the government goons have disposed of in the city sewers. This little secret is causing some of the city's underground inhabits to mutate into flesh-eating monsters known as C.H.U.D. (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers). It's up to "Home Alone" alumni John Heard and Daniel Stern to stop this menace before it's too late. It's easier said than done though as the police department and an alleged N.R.C. representative want to put a lid on things.

"C.H.U.D." opens up somewhat slowly with a lot of pointless back story but the final half-hour is its "bread and butter". Stern and Heard get chased through the city's crappy sewer system full of toxic waste and decapitated heads while Greist is trapped in her apartment by one of the title monsters, complete with glow in the dark eyes. This movie also boats cameo appearances from such diverse talent as John Goodman, Patricia Richardson, and Jon Polito, to name a few.

"C.H.U.D." actually gets some decent treatmant with this DVD release. You get the movie in its original 1.77:1 aspect ratio with all of the television footage inserted back into it (though it says nothing about that on the cover packaging). There's also an easter egg with an alternate take of Kim Greist's shower scene complete with a nice little breast shot. But the best bonus of all has to be the full-length commentary with the film's director, writer, and actors John Heard, Daniel Stern, and Christopher Curry. These guys literally have a blast ripping into the movie. It's good stuff. If you see only one film about radioactive sewer creatures, make it this one.

C.H.U.D is a classic; one I almost ignored. I had doubts about whether or not it would be good but bought it anyway. I am happy that I did. It takes place in present day (well, for when it was made) New York, where something is killing off the homeless people. A man who runs a local soup-kitchen, along with a doubting police captain, figure out what it is that is killing everyone. Meanwhile a photographer, who recently moved to NY and is trying to get pictures of the homeless people for a newspaper article gets involved, and they try to stop the monsters. However, it appears that this goes higher into the government than any of them expected, and they are soon in over their heads.
The movie also has a clever social commentary, about how people try to forget about the homeless, and how people don't want to have anything to do with them. No one cares about the people being killed, until the "real people" die. At that point, it becomes a major military topic.
This is a movie that no one should go without seeing. It is well worth the price, and will not disappoint.

Where to start? I remember seeing this film in the late 80's on The USA Network's "Commander USA" (God do I miss those times, and that type of televsion). Anyway, when I first saw this film I was probably about 12 or 13. It frightened me but it also entertained me as well.

Watching it again, recently, I'd forgotten how, truly, enjoyable and watchable the film is. Yeah, I mean it's cheesy, and cliched but it's fantastic.
When soup kitchen chef A.J. Shepard(Daniel Stern) reports a dozen missing persons to the police department, Captain Bosch(Christopher Curry) goes down to the kitchen to check things out. Although their relationship is cold at first, they begin to work together to figure out exactly what is going on.
What they find is a EPA coverup and a bunch of grotesquely, deformed creatures living underground responsible for the murders.

This film is not without it's flaws, but compared to today's horror films it's a refreshing change from the norm.
It has an outstanding 80's synth score, and although the dialogue and story may drag along in places, it's still incredibly entertaining. I really miss these types of horror films. Times when they weren't afraid to try something new, even if it wasn't Oscar worthy.

I recommend this to anyone who loves early, to middle, 1980's horror films. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
One other thing, if you do buy the DVD, please make sure to check out the commentary. It is one of the most entertaining, comedic commentary I've ever heard. Those guys had me cracking up.

I saw "C.H.U.D." in the theater when it was first released, and hadn't seen it since. I remembered it as a basically decent horror movie with a good cast and silly monsters. I recently decided to order the DVD, and found a movie both similar to and different from what I remembered from 1984. The movie is still a basically decent low-budget horror film, but seems much campier in retrospect; the cast is still far above average for a horror movie of this budget; the monsters, however, now look way beyond silly. I especially like the glowing eyes and prosthetic neck lengthening which somehow I had forgotten all about.

Fashion photographer John Heard teams up with underground soup kitchen maverick Daniel Stern to investigate the Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers which are responsible for widespread mayhem in New York City. There is a government cover up, romance, and other various and sundry subplots, but I don't want to spoil the fun for you. The special effects are pretty cheesy (I especially like the helmets that look like a claustrophobic combination of aquarium and petporter), but the entire budget for the film was only $1.3 million. Given that, the picture is much better than you would expect, although perfectly fine performances are frequently interrupted by vicious bits of overacting. The film definitely has an eerie quality, partially due to the atmospheric sets, locations, and lighting, and partially due to the weird electronic music which is vaguely unsettling.

For those of you who saw this in theaters, this did not seem to be the same version originally released, although I was unsure until about halfway in when John Goodman and Jay Thomas appear as cops in a diner and are attacked by C.H.U.D. This is the shot that the theatrical version ended with, but is in the middle of this version. This version also seemed longer to me, with extra scenes I didn't recall. The commentary track confirmed that this was a very different version than released, and furnished a lot of interesting information about the movie.

This DVD features several extras, including a trailer, some still photographs, and a commentary track by the cast and director. The commentary track is far and away the best reason to buy this DVD. The commentary is both hilarious and enlightening, and they have brutal fun teasing each other, so much so that the track has an MST3K-esque quality about it. They detail how the film was made and reveal things like the fact the term C.H.U.D. was originated in a drunken stupor, with no concept of what it even stood for, and that the C.H.U.D. costumes took ten percent of the film budget and that between takes the actors inside them (who didn't even get credits) had to sit down and breathe from an oxygen mask. The commentary is all in good humor, and it's clear that they all like each other and like the project.

"C.H.U.D." is certainly not one of the best films ever made, but it is a fun trip back to early 1980's low-budget filmmaking, and will be enjoyed by horror and camp enthusiasts alike.

When the streets of New York City are hit with a rash of disappearances that strikes the sewer-dwelling homeless particularly hard, a police Captain teams with the owner of a soup-kitchen to find out what's going on. Meanwhile, a freelance reporter teams with a reluctant photojournalist in search of the same story. The horror they discover feels like an urban legend come to life, and the organization responsible will prove to be just as strong a danger as the cannibalistic, humanoid, underground dwellers themselves.

"C.H.U.D." may not be a masterpiece, but if you grew up in the '80's, you're sure to remember it. For all the disdain its creators hold for it, C.H.U.D. is really an underrated, pretty decent sci-fi/horror film. The story itself, with its ominous conspiracy and urban-legend feeling, is unquestionably creepy. Its execution isn't flawless, but C.H.U.D. is nevertheless a satisfying bit of cinema with good performances from an impressive cast. John Heard plays the photographer who doesn't really want to get involved, Kim Greist is his pregnant, fashion model love-interest, Daniel Stern is the frazzled soup-kitchen guy who is determined to expose the truth, and Christopher Curry is Police Captain Bosch, who is forced to uncover the secret of the city sewers in desperation to discover what happened to his missing wife.

Released in 1984 and directed by Douglas Cheek, there have been a few different edits of C.H.U.D., but this anamorphic widescreen, Anchor Bay DVD gives us a sweet extended cut that is likely better than the theatrical release ever was. Extras include a great commentary with director Douglas Cheek, stars Daniel Stern, John Heard, and Christopher Curry, and writer Shephard Abbott. The DVD also includes the theatrical trailer, a still gallery, and an Easter egg. If you are a child of the '80's who loves horror, it's definitely a must own.

A sequel was released five years later, "C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud", but that horror comedy had virtually no connection with the original "C.H.U.D." and was actually more of a zombie spoof. Some theorize that it was originally meant to be a "Return of the Living Dead" sequel somewhat spoofing Bub the zombie from "Day of the Dead". Probably worth checking out for a laugh or two (haven't seen it recently enough to comment on it much), but not as a legitimate C.H.U.D. sequel.