Or C.H.U.D. for short
In 1984, all I really cared about was playing with my friends, watching He-Man kick the hell out of Skeletor, and Garbage Pail Kids. We didn't have a VHS player, so we had to rent the machine overnight and grab a couple tapes. I was never allowed to rent a horror film, but I always walked through them to check out the sleeves and always wondered just how scary they really were. One that always caught my eye was C.H.U.D. Time to find out if this would have scared me...
We start with a hapless woman walking her dog in the street at night in NYC. Not sure why she's walking down the MIDDLE of the street, but there she is. As she nears a manhole cover, something nasty reaches out of it and sucks her and her poor dogie in. We've met our first C.H.U.D.!
Strange things start happening in the sewers and the homeless that live down there beginning to arm themselves. 3 different people start investigating the oddities and watching them converge to the same conclusion is done really well. While this wasn't a big budget film, the writing is very strong in ways that we're not used to seeing. But also ham-fisted in other scenes. But you'll find yourself ignoring them or smiling to yourself when you remember this was an '80s horror flick involving NYCPD. This includes one of the most improbable car explosions I've ever seen. As far as the F/X go, it seemed at first that they were going to be cheesy and cheap. But they knew which scene to spend the money on and where to skimp.
Call it a period piece, but I liked it. I remember a lot of the 80s, and this brings me back to a time when there was no internet, no cell phones, no CGI, and no Michael Bay. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to go back there, but it's nice to check in on it every once in a while.
Future star watch:
Daniel Stern!
John Goodman!
Friday: Oh, you're a stupid little half-assed cookie/cracker hybrid....
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