Friday, January 29, 2010

C.H.U.D: Does Not Stand For Whoops I Thought This Was "Critters"!


Yes yes laugh it up. After years of prowling the horror movie section of my local video store as a young child- my lack of photographic memory has caught up with me and I've neglected to notice that C.H.U.D is not the movie with the dust bunnies who have teeth.

Whoops! I was so confused as to why the Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers did not look like they did on the front of the VHS that I almost emailed the distribution company in anger. Luckily- the word "critters" rang a bell and a quick google image search reinforced my mistake and stupidity. C.H.U.D. while not about cannibalistic dust bunnies- is about some toxic waste- and harkens back to those delightful creature features that we all know and love!

Well it had to happen. Someone noticed that the homeless people had started to go missing and an investigation was started. This investigation uncovers the truth that a dwelling of mutated creatures that were once human beings has taken over the sewage system. Since most of their food was compromised of the homeless people who are now all eaten- they've taken to the streets and started munching on the...non-homeless. Marv from Home Alone
and the dad from Home Alone plus a dectective who was also in Home Alone 3- team up and try to put an end to those pesky C.H.U.D's. Forget the six degrees of Kevin Bacon- C.H.U.D and the connections to Home Alone are off the charts!

Once I got over the fact that the CHUDs weren't the reverse effect of Gremlins- meaning they would get cuter if more time went on- I started to realize that C.H.U.D does a pretty decent job of taking the creature feature reins. Once again toxic waste proves to be the ultimate enemy- and the movie teaches a valuable lesson in the importance of NOT using the sewage system to throw away all that sludge. Although the creatures aren't exactly terrifying
I do enjoy how their headlight eyes turn off once they are killed- plus they squirt out toxic waste blood.

There were also several enjoyable comedic moments but my favorite perhaps under the radar hilarity comes when the Bosch and Marv are trying to convince the important people that there are evil creatures in the sewer. When Bosch says that he met Marv who is the head of a soup kitchen the important people chuckle about soup kitchens. I don't know why this is so funny to me- maybe it's not really funny at all but it sure made me laugh out loud. It also however brings up an interesting point- that C.H.U.D might be an interesting solution to rid the world of homelessness. I kid!

My one sort of flaw with the film is that I would have loved to see more evidence of the creatures taking the streets and actually leaving the sewer system. Sure we get that nice scene in the apartment, and the coffee shop- but it all seemed so brief- and the coffee shop scene barely showed anything at all. I figured the creatures would be running amok all over the place- but sadly they DID end up just staying in the sewers for most of it- what a gyp!

While I did enjoy C.H.U.D. I thought I was going to enjoy it more- which again I blame Critters for- but nevertheless still a great little 80s movie. And it keeps me alerted to all the other horror movies where CHUD's make an appearance (like the Descent!). Oh and I must mention I cried out loud when the dog got snatched in the beginning- but later rejoiced at the fact that a stuffed animal was found gutted when the woman goes down to investigate the drainage system. The budget for this movie must have astronomical! I also could not help but smile at all the ways C.H.U.D was a nice little homage to movies like Them! What with the sewer scenes- the gassing of the dwelling and how the creatures came to be. It was all so lovely! Plus Bosch is the coolest character ever. Marv is second.

Buy C.H.U.D at Horror Movie Empire



8 comments:

Evil Dave said...

So, all I have to say is that if you are telling a story, realize it is boring and going nowhere or you just don't know how to end it, just say, "Then the C.H.U.D. came."

It works for my friends and me.

Andre Dumas said...

Hahahah, Fanastic!

Anonymous said...

OH I so remember this movie -- mainly because of its name! CHUD! My mom and I still refer to it every now and again!

Totally forgot Daniel Stern was in it -- interesting....

The Mike said...

I LOVE CHUD! It's fun to try and keep track of how many times they say Bosch for no apparent reason. Some old friends and I used to have plenty of running BOSCH gags at his expense, because he is so awesome.

Bobby Bless said...

i love the scene in the apartment when the C.H.U.D. is chasing around the chick and conveniently stretches its neck out so she can cut it off with the samurai sword... cracks me up every time i see it.

the jaded viewer said...

I love how the 80s was filled with these type of alien buggers or toxic waste mutations.

We need more mutation movies!

Chris H said...

Great movie! The guy who wrote the story is from Gloucester!

Andre, we gave CHUD away as a trivia contest prize that you would have surely won had you been able to attend Jan screening, haha. It was such an easy question.

Andre Dumas said...

Aw man! What was the question Chris??