C.H.U.D.

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This review is a film I recently saw called C.H.U.D. It's a 1980's horror flick of moderate budget. And, in case you're wondering, C.H.U.D. stands for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers." Um...yeah.

The cast is full of surprising future semi-celebs. Take, for example, John Heard. He is the guy from Home Alone who robs the house. (Not Joe Pesci, the other one.) Then, there's Daniel Stern, and a short appearance by John Goodman.

The plot involves a police cheif investigating his wife's disappearance. He discovers some homeless people have also disappeared from around the same section of Manhattan. As he begins to uncover clues, what does he find? You guessed it. Bizarre underground zombies who dwell in the sewers and eat people.

The script is completely convoluted. At some point, there is a nuclear government CEO guy who is trying to cover his own butt, because he knows about the underground zombie things. So, he attempts a cover up to keep anyone from finding out about it. Captain Bosch, the police captain, discovers one of the nuclear government guy's files, entitled "C.H.U.D." That's when the truth is out about the underground dwellers...sort of.

There is surprisingly little action involving the underground zombies. Probably less than five minutes of the 88 total minutes of the movie. The rest is just police investigation, character "development", and other convoluted plot nonsense. It has it's hilarious moments, however. (Take, for example, the very end of the film. The last line of the film. It's night time. The police chief is dying on the street after being shot. John Heard's character shoots a "bad guy", and the police chief utters, "Good shot, kid....good shot." Then, he dies. Then, credits roll. Completely anti-climactic.)

It may be a moot point to point out plot holes, but the biggest one concerns the actual zombies. There is absolutely no resolution at the end. Not a single thing is said about what happens to the zombies, or if anyone tries to kill them.

In comparison with other 80's horror fims, this one has an above-average cast. It has awesomely bad special effects, and a couple of interesting zombie visuals. But, overall, it's watered down and doesn't really tell much of a story.

my rating: 2 out of 5 stars

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