C.H.U.D./Review

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< C.H.U.D.
Revision as of 11:58, 17 August 2016 by Peter (talk | contribs)

Since I'm a fan of exploitation/cult films I have to argue with lots of critics about why this movie is not as bad as many people think it is. To me, C.H.U.D. is not so much a monster movie as it is a detective movie with elements of the sci-fi genre.

The story takes place in New York City where many people have mysteriously disappeared. Captain Bosch, a cop, tries to investigate this story with help from A.J., a homeless man who runs a shelter and discovers some items left by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Meanwhile, George Cooper, a photographer, is taking pictures of homeless people who live in the underground and notices strange wounds on the residents. This whole movie is essentially about investigation, it's not a gore-fest like Contamination or Zombi 2. That's why we see the monster for less than 20 minutes. The whole point of C.H.U.D. is not about seeing people get killed brutally by a big monster, but about government corruption.

In the middle of the story, Bosch discovers a document called C.H.U.D., so he asks Wilson, a corrupt man who works for Nuclear Regulatory Commission what it means. Wilson explains it stands for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller", but later we find out that it actually means "Contamination Hazard Urban Disposal". Yep, NRC decided to dispose all of their contaminated works in the underground, not knowing that there were people who live there, hence the homeless people turning into mutated creatures. At first, Wilson decides to do NOTHING at all to stop it, but later he tries to kill the monster with gas. Gee, I wonder what will happen to all the homeless people who live down there?

The acting is not that good in this film but luckily there's a character that I'm sure that everybody who watches it will love: A.J. He's the badass homeless man who dares to talk to the corrupt official from NRC. Actually, he reminds me of Casey from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for some reason and the movie even reminds me of other sci-fi thrillers like Alien and They Live.

To sum it up, don't expect this film to be a bloodbath/gorefest and you will enjoy it. The build-up is slow but very effective. It's one of those films that you'll either love to the maximum level or you won't want to watch it again for the rest of your life.


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Nuttawut Permpithak hails from Thailand. He spends his free time watching exploitation films (or any films from the past) writing articles, taking photos and reviewing films for GCDb.

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