Skip to main content

C.H.U.D. (1984) - Douglas Cheek

So its 2011 now... 2010 was a huge year for me with Horror Movie Project. Thanks to everyone who has visited and taken an interest in the site, and thanks to everyone who has linked to me. Thank you everyone on Rotten Tomatoes and Facebook for your cool support. Thank you Better Board. You guys rock.

So a good friend of mine suggested that we sit down and watch C.H.U.D. I had never heard of the movie before, so I agreed. We grabbed a couple beers and sat down to be entertained by the unknown.

The plot is pretty thin. There's an evil conglomerate that is dumping nuclear waste in the sewers of New York where a community of homeless people live. Naturally a few of the homeless mutated and became C.H.U.D.'s Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers.

I couldn't have guessed that I would turn this movie on and see actors like Daniel Stern and John Goodman making cameo appearances. I didn't know that I would be taken by the movie's comedy whether it be intentional or not. There is nothing scary about this movie whatsoever; its more of a commentary on homelessness.

If you haven't seen C.H.U.D. go out and rent it; this movie is right at home in the corner of some dirty video rental place that still carries VHS sitting on the shelf between a copy of Captian America starring Dolf Lundgren and Crazy Fat Ethel 2. Movies like this make me wish I could turn back the clock and work at a video rental store in the mid 90's.

With all of the unintentional comedy and the lack of scary parts C.H.U.D. is an exceptional cult film; it is genius without even knowing it. C.H.U.D. is an 80's schlock movie through and through, but if you want something serious and scary look elsewhere. C.H.U.D. snags a 6 out of 10 from me. Daniel Stern makes the movie.

Gog... and Magog
  • Robert Englund (Freddy Kruger) was going to take the role that Daniel Stern filled, however he passed on it to take on Nightmare on Elm Street.
  • The first victim in the movie is Daniel Stern's actual wife.
  • In the Simpsons Homer says that he was attacked by CHUDs the last time he visited New York City.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »

Spookies (1986) - Genie Joseph, Thomas Doran, and Brendan Faulkner

It's impossible to get a decent movie when you take two films and just squash them together. That is essentially the story of how this movie came together. The film started as Twisted Souls. However, according to the financial backer they didn't have enough horror. So they ended up hiring another guy to come in and add a monster in virtually every scene.  This movie started out being directed by Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran. It basically is the tale of two sets of teenagers that arrive to a strange building surrounded by a strange cemetery. It was your usual tale of teenagers in a big hows with a few monsters. Then they brought in Genie Joseph and added even more. Like a haunted birthday party, a murderous cat-man, zombies, and an old wizard. It really became a smorgasbord of horror with a very thin plot-line leading it around. This movie is hard to summarize in a conventional way. It just packs so much.  The most interesting part of this movie are defini
2 comments
Not scared yet? »

Le Diable au Convent (1899) - George Melies

Le Diable au Convent is longer than the two previous Georges Méliès ventures into short form horror. This particular French short shows the Devil himself running a convent and terrorizing the poor old nuns that live there. However he is finally vanquished by the good of Faith. This is yet another Méliès classic, showcasing the art work that really goes into his short film-making. This is one of the earliest examples of a horror movie that could rely on its elaborate set design and artistic design. Everything in this film, although horribly aged, has been packaged extremely well. If you are a fan of production and set design then I would highly recommend just about anything that Melies has his name on. Though nothing that is considered too extreme actually happens, Satan does have his way with a convent. The satanic imagery itself must have kept this film on the traveling carnival circuit. It certainly wouldn’t fit into the good moral bag that society shoved itself into back in
1 comment
Not scared yet? »