Under The City….
Sometimes a classic horror film takes its time finding fans. Many films that failed to find their audience in theaters often gain a cult following once they are released to streaming services, Blu-ray, DVD, or, in the case of many films released in the 1980’s and 90’s, VHS. C.H.U.D. is one of those films. Although it did turn a small profit, it was only given a limited release in theaters. New life was breathed into the film once it was released on VHS.
The film tells the story of mutated beings (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers or C.H.U.D.) that are attacking homeless people and anyone who ventures too close to a manhole cover in the Lafayette Street area of New York’s SoHo neighborhood. The problem with the attacks is that they are not being made public due to an official with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who has placed a gag order on city officials. When a local police captain’s (Christopher Curry) wife goes missing, he starts to dig deeper into the numerous missing persons and homicide reports that are being swept under the rug. With the aid of a soup kitchen owner nicknamed “The Rev” (Daniel Stern) and a local photographer, George Cooper (John Heard), who is doing a photography project on homeless people in the neighborhood, the captain attempts to uncover the truth about what’s really happening under Lafayette Street.
Once the captain, The Rev, and George begin to uncover dirty secrets, the NRC official named Wilson (George Martin) tries to put a stop to them and to the mutated creatures below the city. I won’t tell you if Captain Bosch, The Rev, or George survive the final conflict, but I will tell you to watch this film despite its many flaws.
The film is by no means a stellar production, but the first sixty minutes of the movie are surprisingly well done. It isn’t until the final act that the performance of some of the film’s stars (in particular John Heard’s performance) seem to come apart at the seams. The C.H.U.D. mutants look pretty good and generate some decent scares, but their brightly lit eyes are a bit goofy looking. The music by Martin Cooper is actually very good. It keeps pulling the viewer in once the direction goes off of the rails in the climax of the film.
The film is very entertaining and even though it’s a pretty light romp, it puts a focus on the plight of the homeless and the dangers of hazardous waste. At the beginning of the film, the police aren’t that concerned with a large amount of homeless people going missing. It is only when his wife goes missing that Captain Bosch decides to turn up the heat on the case. This is a serious issue even today. Society doesn’t always care whenever a homeless person is found dead or murdered. While the issue of hazardous and radioactive waste is pushed to an extreme in this film, it does make you wonder about what we are really doing to our planet.
This film features a massive amount of actors who would go on to have prolific careers. Daniel Stern and John Heard would both go on to have successful careers and would appear in two more films together (Home Alone and Home Alone 2). Christopher Curry would go on to have a solid career as a character actor in films such as F/X (1986) and television shows like Huff. Kim Greist already had a successful career as a model before taking on the role of Lauren, George’s girlfriend, in the film. She continued to act in a number of supporting roles in film and television, most notably in the films Brazil (1985) and Throw Momma From The Train (1987) and retired from acting in 2001. We also get early performances from actors such as John Goodman (Roseanne, Kong: Skull Island), Jon Polito (The Rocketeer, Homicide: Life on the Street), Jay Thomas (Cheers, Mork & Mindy, Mr. Holland’s Opus) and Patricia Richardson (Home Improvement, Strong Medicine).
If you haven’t viewed C.H.U.D., I highly recommend giving it a look. It’s a weird film that is very good most of the time but becomes unhinged too often to really lift it above its B-movie cult status. The sheer number of eventual stars in the movie should be motivation enough for you to give it a look, but it’s also a pretty fun flick as a whole. A sequel, C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D., was released in 1989. It takes a much heavier comical turn than its predecessor. I might review it in the future, but don’t hold your breath.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you all again real soon.
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