C.H.U.D.

Rating:
Summary: Monster movie with a message
Review: Many movies try to teach you important, preachy lessons and disguise them in the trappings of fantasy. CHUD is one of those. Here it is: Homeless people are people too and should not be treated as throw away citizens. But wait! There's more! CHUD manages to squeeze in two lessons for the price of one! Lesson two: Our dependency on products made with toxic chemicals combined with our innate greed is going to be our eventual downfall. Now that we have learned our lesson, start the DVD and just enjoy the fantasy trappings. Because CHUD is a monster movie. A good one.

John Heard (Cat People, Pelican Brief) and Daniel Stern (Home Alone, The Wonder Years) headline a decent cast occupying a New York neighborhood where people have started disappearing. Oh, people have been disappearing for a while, but those others were just homeless people (see Lesson One), but now "important" people are coming up missing. And soon it becomes apparent that creatures in the subways and sewer systems of the city are dining out on the local passersby.

It takes a while before you get a good look at one of the CHUDs (c.h.u.d. representing "canniballistic humanoid underground dwellers"). When you see them though, they are good, original looking monster freaks with glowing eyes and snaggly teeth. Add to that image the fact that they live in those dark places underground and the creep factor is complete. We all know that there are miles of tunnels and passages under our big cities, but no one wants to go down there. In our minds, we see THESE things jumping out at us. A monster movie has to appeal to one of your fears and I guess this is one of mine.

People tend to condemn CHUD for some reason or another. I think it does a good job at creeping you out while providing a solid 90 minutes of entertainment. It won't be shown in your American Cinema 101 class though.

DVD special features include some cool production photos and pre-production looks at the design of the creatures. Audio commentary includes the director and 3 lead actors. Always a plus when they can get the actors to come in and chat. Buy CHUD and I think you will enjoy it. HOWEVER, avoid the sequel "CHUD 2: Bud the CHUD" at all costs. It has almost nothing to do with this film and it is horrible.

Rating:
Summary: C.H.U.D. DVD Review!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: C.H.U.D.
Review: One of the great horror movies of all times. Will scare the socks off of you. Please watch and enjoy this masterpiece. Douglas Cheek's direction is masterful.

Rating:
Summary: shepard abbott is a genious!
Review: shepard abbott, the writer of this radical movie is my art teacher! its awsome

Rating:
Summary: Watch Out! They're Toxic!
Review: The government decides that the best way to dispose of hazardous waste is to use New York city as a toilet. This works just great, until the underground homeless folks turn into radioactive mutants with a hankerin' for human flesh! John Heard is a photographer who begins to figure out the inane conspiracy with the help of a homeless shelter operator (played seriously by Daniel Stern). Together they take on both the CHUDsters and the equally slimey government operatives. C.H.U.D. has it's creepy moments, as well as being fun to watch. Look for John Goodman's microscopic role as a cop in the diner. May the CHUD be with you...

Rating:
Summary: I've been asking for it all my life. I just never get it.
Review: The only good part of the movie is a cameo by John Goodman (who must have been in this movie because of bad direction from his agent, and to collect a paycheck) in his part as an officer at a diner hustling the cook. He delivers the line above when the cook tells him "he's asking for it."

Douglas Cheek who, surprise, surprise, never directed another movie after this debacle known as C.H.U.D. Before C.H.U.D., he only directed a television series called "Vegetable Soup," I'm sure it was a winner, and showed the investors of this movie that his vision for C.H.U.D was well deserving of their funds. ;)

John Heard (Home Alone 1 & 2, In the Line of Fire, The Pelican Brief, and Snake Eyes) plays the main character, George Cooper. George Cooper is a photographer, who would come off as a pompous jerk (the way he treats the soon to be pregnant girlfriend), however, the director (the wonderfully talented Mr. Cheek) has him helping the homeless, even bailing one lady out of jail.

Actually, I take that back, John Heard's character still is a pompous jerk (he plays this role well, see Home Alone, not to questions your character Mr. Heard ;). Daniel Stern (also from Home Alone 1 & 2) plays his counter part, and far more likable A.J. 'The Reverend' Shepherd. A.J. 'The Reverend' Shepherd helps the homeless by working at a soup kitchen.

A.J. 'The Reverend' Shepherd informs the police about the missing homeless who live under the street and usually come to the soup kitchen, but all the sudden stop. Well, well, well, come to find out the city has been storing toxic waste under the city streets (shame, shame, shame). This leads to the homeless who live under the streets turning into these C.H.U.D creatures, and they start eating their fellow homeless. However, once the homeless under the street start to die out who would they have to eat next?

In conclusion, C.H.U.D. spells B.A.D. Not worth watching, would not recommend viewing/renting, and does not belong in your DVD collection (though it's in mine). You have been warned. There are some good 80's horror movies that are cleaver; this is not one of them.

Grade: D-


Rating:
Summary: An entertaining trash sci-fi/horror film cult classic.
Review: The Plot:In the city of New York City, in the dark, disgusting labyrinth of tennels beneath the street of NYC. Since of couple of weeks, disapperence of homeless people and citizens are gone without a trace of evidences. When a Kiitchen cook(Daniel Stern) discover some of his usual people are missing and including Cop detective(Christopher Curry), his wife is missing. Since another person(John Heard) an professional photography also believes some of the homeless people are missing too. When one of them discover there some radioactive activity going on the underground of the city. The stranger and the situation goes darker and worse and unexpected is not always what is seems to be.

This film is surprisngly well written and directed with an good plot and at times mixed with an tongue in cheek humour and also good performances from Heard, Stern, Curry and also Kim Greist(Who plays Heard's girlfriend).

DVD`s has anomorphic widescreen(1.75:1) format, DVD is also in it Original 2-channel mono soundtrack. The best surprise the film is a Director`s Cut with 8 mins of additional footage but this version is complete re-edited as the director originally intened. Also this DVD edition has running commentary track by the director-Douglas Cheek, screenwriter-Shepard Abbott and Actors-Heard, Stern and Curry. This film is a little clever B-movie, which of kinds of films that reminds of that silly fifties movie and with an excellent make-up monster effects. Grade:A-.

Rating:
Summary: I've actually begun to enjoy it...
Review: The underground-dwelling homeless people of NYC have been exposed to toxic chemicals and have mutated into cheesy-looking but highly amusing monsters who periodically come up to street level to gobble up human victims.

My reception to this 1984 horror picture, when I initially reviewed it at imdb.com was lukewarm, but it's grown on me since that first viewing. (I know, I have to accept that people will attack my credibility if I keep changing my mind on films that I disliked at first.) It's still glorified 1980's style horror junk, but it's ENJOYABLE junk.

When you listen to the side-splitting commentary by stars John Heard, Daniel Stern, and Christopher Curry, director Douglas Cheek, and original writer Shepard Abbott (what kind of name is that - SERIOUSLY?) the value easily goes up a notch. The film was obviously a labor of love for all concerned - this junk was made with HEART.

Things I didn't know: Cordis Heard, who plays the policewoman Sanderson, is John H.'s older sister, and Laure Mattos, who is the very first victim of the movie, is Stern's wife. Also, Stern's brother David was one of a handful of production assistants. Just listen to the guys talk over the closing credits - when David's name comes up, Stern playfully snarls, "a**hole!"

As many of you know by now, what is truly incredible is the wide assortment of familiar faces throughout the film, including some prolific character actors (you may not recognize future film slimeball Jon Polito - he's much thinner and has a full head of hair!) and some future sitcom stars, some of whom were personally selected by the leads. In fact, Christopher Curry, an unknown at the time, wouldn't have gotten his role if his friends Heard and Stern hadn't insisted that he be cast.

The commentary alone makes it worth buying. Also included are the obligatory theatrical trailer, and a decent behind-the-scenes photo gallery, including the original C.H.U.D. design concept.

This DVD gets four out of five from me.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good 80's mix of Sci-fi and Horror with some Laughs.
Review: This 1984 Cult Thriller is about a Group of Investagators
who discover that underground of New York lies " C.H.U.D."
( Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers, who are large
Mutated Lizard-like Creatures that were formely Street Bums that
are exposed to Dangerous Chemicals. It's a entertaining and
fun film for B-Movie lovers including those who worship MST3K.

Anchor Bay did a good job of this movie on DVD, there is a Easter Egg, click on the Eyeballs of the C.H.U.D. Picture on the Menu to see a longer version of the shower scene.

Rating:
Summary: Played on 42nd Street Forever In It's Day
Review: This filmed hung around 42nd street I think over a year when it was out. It's a classic horror film about monsters in the sewer. If you really like horror films set in NYC then give it an extra star.