C.H.U.D.
 |
| C.H.U.D. | |
|---|---|
 C.H.U.D. movie poster | |
| Directed by | Douglas Cheek |
| Written by | Shepard Abbott Parnell Hall |
| Produced by | Andrew Bonime |
| Starring | John Heard, Daniel Stern, Christopher Curry, Kim Greist, John Goodman J.C. Quinn Michael O'Hare |
| Cinematography | Peter Stein |
| Edited by | Claire Simpson |
| Music by | Martin Cooper David A. Hughes |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
Release date | August 31 1984 (USA) |
Running time | 88 min./96 min. (director's cut) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | unknown |
C.H.U.D. an acronym for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller" was a 1984 B horror movie produced by Andrew Bonime, and directed by Douglas Cheek with Peter Stein as the director of photography. In the movie, an alternate acronym (the real one referred to in the film) is "Contamination Hazard Urban Disposal". It won Best Fantasy Film at Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film in 1985, but advances in special effects have rendered it kitsch. It was followed in 1988 by C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D.
Cast
Although the film was of a "pulp" genre, it did receive some surprisingly good reviews including a rave from the New York Times. It is now considered a cult classic. Among the notable actors with roles in the movie are John Goodman, Daniel Stern, and John Heard.
Plot
In the film, the New York City Police Department receive reports of people disappearing from the streets of the city—disturbingly, witnesses say the victims are pulled into manholes by deformed puppy-like creatures. A police officer teams with a journalist and a hippie to investigate the phenomenon. As the film begins we see a woman walking her dog down a lonely, darkened city street, she passes by a drain hole cover and voila – the modus operandi of CHUD feeding behavior is established. Next we meet George Cooper (Heard) and his live-in girlfriend Lauren (Greist). George, a once prominent fashion photographer, has since forgone the fame and fortune of taking pictures of scantily clad models in pursuit of artistic credibility, his most current project photographing New York's homeless population, specifically those known as `undergrounders', or people who reside within the bowels of the city (the sewers, unused subway tunnels, etc.). We also meet a police captain named Bosch (Curry), who has a personal interest in the recent spate of missing persons being reported to his precinct (mostly the homeless), so much so he interviews A.J. 'The Reverend' Shepherd (Stern), who runs the local bum shelter and believes recent events to be a part of some massive, government cover up, and has the evidence to prove it. Bosch's superiors know more than they're letting on, and seem to be taking their cues from an overly glib, weasely type named Wilson (Martin), who works for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Turns out there are monsters lurking beneath the streets, beings that were once human, since mutated by toxic waste into hideous, flesh eating creatures preying on those homeless who live beneath the streets. Given the recent drop in the underground transient population, the creatures have resorted to coming to the surface (through sewer manholes) in order to feed. Through a series of events, both George and A.J. find themselves trapped in the sewers, a reporter gets involved (and eaten), Lauren has a problem with both a clogged shower drain and an unexpected visitor (one who came up through the sewer access point in the basement of the apartment building that she mysteriously decides to open). Captain Bosch argues with Wilson as how to best deal with the blokes - Wilson wants to seal the sewers, open up some gas lines, and asphyxiate the C.H.U.D.S. despite the inherent danger in blowing up three halves of the city.
Cultural References
The Simpsons
- In the September 24, 1997 episode of The Simpsons, "The City of New York Vs. Homer Simpson", Homer Simpson's recollection of his first trip to New York City ended with Him falling in the sewer and quoting "...and that's when the C.H.U.D.s came at me." Marge responds: "Of course you'll have a bad impression of New York if you only focus on the pimps and the C.H.U.D.s."
- In another episode of The Simpsons, Homer—when falling from a building with Otto on a bungee cord—goes down into an open manhole and sees various underground creatures, including Morlocks (from H.G. Wells "The Time Machine"), CHUDS, and Molemen (with Hans Moleman as their leader).
- In yet another Simpsons episode, "Crook and Ladder", a videocassette of the film is seen at the beginning of a chain of videocassette boxes used as dominoes.
Other
- In one of his weekly strips, Stephen Notley's Bob the Angry Flower facilitates the reconciliation of C.H.U.D. and humans: [1]
- Tom Green did a segment on his original Ottawa show in which himself and several sewer workers went searching for CHUD, Tom misappropriated the U.D. acronym for 'Urban Dweller' and in the end it turned out that Rock, one of the fellow sewage workers, was a C.H.U.D. all along, prompting Tom to sing "Rock is the Chud, Rock is the CHUD, He's not my Bud!"
- In the soup kitchen Val (Graham Beckel) addresses A.J. (Daniel Stern) and Bosch (Christopher Curry) as Gog and Magog, which is probably a reference to the biblical demons, not C.H.U.D.
- The title inspired the name of the popular film news website CHUD.com. However, in this case the acronym stood for "Cinematic Happenings Under Development".
- In the February 7, 2006 episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert blamed the C.H.U.D. for the construction of an illegal drug-trade tunnel between the USA and Mexico.
- C.H.U.D. was a card in the Church of the Subgenius card game.
- Deceased rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard (of Wu-Tang Clan fame) refers to the long version of the title in his lyrics on a bonus track on his first LP "Return to the 36 Chambers".
- In Clerks II, the character of Dante Hicks is asked why he always has two good-looking girls fighting over him when he's such a hideous CHUD.
- The Providence based mathcore band Daughters, released a song entitled "And Then the C.H.U.D.S Came" on their 2003 album Canada Songs.
- The 2001 film Donnie Darko originally intended to show a sequence from C.H.U.D., but instead obtained the rights to Evil Dead. In one scene, after a confrontation with a motivational speaker, the title character states: "He thinks he's so rad, but he's such a CHUD!"
- In the first installent of the video game "Tony Hawk's Underground", an unlockable character resembling the creature from the black lagoon is referred to as "T.H.U.D" (Tony Hawk's Underground Dweller). The T.H.U.D also appears in the Neversoft logo at the start of the game, where it attacks & maims Eric Sparrow.
- Dr. Chud, former drummer of seminal punk rock band the Misfits, takes his name from this film.
- Chud also is a slang term for transsexuals.[citation needed]