C.H.U.D. (3/1/12)

Movie Forty Two

Let me get two things out of the way:

1. C.H.U.D. is not a good movie
2. I have a soft spot for bad horror movies

As a youngster, I would watch horror movies of all sorts and would love every second of them, even the nigh-unwatchable ones. As I’ve grown up (I hesitate to say “matured”) it has become harder to appreciate the entire genre, but I still have my old favorites. C.H.U.D. is one of those favorites.

I believe I can even pinpoint the first time I heard of C.H.U.D., from the ill-fated but amazing TV show, The Critic. A movie reviewer says “This movie is so good, it makes Hud look like C.H.U.D., and I loved C.H.U.D.“. Low budget and cheesy are definitely two adjectives that apply, but there is more to love if you look hard enough.

The movie begins with a woman walking her dog down a street with a steaming manhole cover. She drops something while she is standing next to the cover and is grabbed! Her and her dog are pulled into the sewer with nothing but a shoe left behind. I could go into details about the characters, but the real stars are the C.H.U.D.s. Basically sewer zombies, the C.H.U.D.s terrorize the people that live underground (apparently they are plentiful and not very shocking to people topside) and eventually make their way above ground to terrorize some more people.

In all, C.H.U.D. is fairly standard fare but there’s something special about it. I would classify it as ‘so bad it is good’ but compared to other horror/monster movies in the 80s, I think it does many more things well. Definitely not for everyone, but a gem for fans.

I give it 3 John Goodman cameos out of 5.

Links:

Rotten Tomatoes

IMDB