On C List of Movie Reviews

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C.H.U.D. (1984)

Rate: 4
Viewed: 4/13

CHUD
4/13: What seemed like a good horror mystery story in C.H.U.D. (which stands for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller) gets undone by the lazy ending.

The film is marked by a series of ups and downs: an acceptable yet implausible story, above-average acting, low intelligence, and enough suspense to keep the pace going. It's the last fifteen minutes, especially the idea of gassing the sewers, that makes me think of the storm drains. Aren't they impossible to seal off?

That's when I knew the director got lazy as evidenced by the sight of an unsealed storm drain during one scene when the police captain was gunned down. This same sort of laziness is also manifested by placing the whole mystery on one guy, Wilson, who's supposedly the head of a company. If they're going to place chemicals inside the sewers of New York City, I'm sure enough people will see it happening and therefore raise alarms. But the police actually helped out by covering up the matter which is highly unlikely.

All in all, C.H.U.D. never gets it together and thus fails to be a good horror film, but three actors did get cast for Home Alone, the pinnacle of their careers.