A lesson many authors need to learn (and I include myself here) is that titles matter. Cutesy, clever titles may work for well-known writers, but something that describes your book, or movie, is essential. And avoid acronyms. I avoided watching C.H.U.D. for years, put off by the title. I’d read a few books where it was discussed, but finally decided it was something I should see. If you’re as put off by acronyms as I am, C.H.U.D. has a double meaning. Initially Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers, but more importantly, Contamination Hazard Urban Disposal. I suppose that’s a bit of a spoiler, but since the movie’s been out since 1984 I’ll let it stand. Although largely panned, I think C.H.U.D.’s a perfectly serviceable monster movie and despite what the critics say, it has a larger message.
Set in a gritty New York City, the film focuses on the homeless who live underground. Although it’s not preachy about it, the underlying message is that these are people too. Until, of course, the contamination hazard mutates some of them into C.H.U.D. Then they start looking for human victims. In a city the size of New York, they don’t have much trouble finding them either. A government cover-up is behind all the mayhem. Nuclear and other hazardous waste is a very real problem, and none of us really knows what happens to it. With much of government boiling down to political theater, I’ll take my chances watching movies and wondering. The good guys in this movie are those who actually care about the homeless. They are a rather unsympathetic photographer and his wife, a police captain with a missing wife, and a guy who runs a soup kitchen. They learn something isn’t right beneath the streets but can’t get the authorities to admit it.
This isn’t a great movie—there are gaps in the plot all over the place—but it’s not a horrible movie either. Sympathetic portrayals of the poor are, in my experience, rare. These are people who’ve organized themselves into a society that’s come under threat because of those who dwell in the light. Some classify C.H.U.D. as science fiction, but that’s a very loose use of the term. It’s actually a low-budget horror film with a bit of heart. Unfortunately the title obscures that this is a little gem of a monster movie. I really had little idea of what it was about when I started streaming, but ninety minutes later I was glad I’d done so. And I went down to the basement afterwards, you know, just to check.
