Misunderstood Monsters: Caring for Human Underground Dwellers aka C.H.U.D.
By Matt Konopka
Previous ⬅ Misunderstood Monsters: ‘Stopmotion’ and the Nature of Creation
Welcome fellow monster kids to Misunderstood Monsters. This is where I, Matt Konopka, sink my fangs into all sorts of beasts, ghouls, and creatures from above while I search for the humanity behind their frightening exteriors. From monster favorites such as The Wolf Man to obscure monsters like the whistling Shadmock, there is more to these fiends than bad hair days and gooey tentacles. Within them all is a piece of ourselves.
C.H.U.D. is not what I would call a “great” film. The one and only theatrically released feature from director Douglas Cheek, this 1984 piece of toxic waste cinema bit off more than it could chew. Shot on a budget of just over one million, every penny was stretched as far as it could go for the ambitious creature feature about monsters living beneath the streets of New York City. One common criticism I often hear is that there just aren’t enough of the rubbery green Ninja Turtles from hell. That the film focuses too much on politics and not enough on monster mayhem. That’s one complaint I tend to disagree with, because the premise of C.H.U.D. is inherently political, from the government coverups going on above the surface, right down to the way society treats the underprivileged, represented by the title creatures.
Parnell Hall’s script brings us to a filthy New York City where Captain Bosch (Christopher Curry) has begun to take a closer look at missing persons cases after his wife disappears without a trace while walking the dog late one night. His investigation leads him to a cast of characters including photographer George (John Heard), famous for his photos depicting the living conditions of those who survive on the streets, and A.J. (Daniel Stern), a good man who runs a soup kitchen. In their search, they learn of a government coverup led by Wilson (George Martin), head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Turns out, the NRC has been storing toxic waste beneath the city for years. The result? Those poor souls who live in the sewers and abandoned tunnels have begun to transform into terrible creatures dubbed by Wilson as C.H.U.D….Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers.
Many consider the 1980s to have marked the emergence of what we would now consider the homeless issue. A confluence of events ranging from gentrification, recession, budget cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing, and others, led to a mass increase of people who were forced from their homes and made to live on the streets. Rather than provide a helping hand for the underprivileged, society has instead chosen to turn a blind eye or worse. Just this past June, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially made it illegal to be homeless, ruling that cities could ban people from sleeping and/or camping in public places. My home state of California passed the California Senate Bill 1011, doing just that. Some of you may think “good” and that hurts my heart. We so often favor our own comfort over sympathy, forgetting that not only are these human beings, but it wouldn’t take much for us to find ourselves in that same position, watching people walk by us like we didn’t exist.
C.H.U.D. asks us to reconsider such apathy towards those who live on the streets.
While I adore the creature design put together by Special Makeup Effects creator John Caglione Jr. at the behest of Cheek, I do wish he had been able to stick with the more human look originally conceived. Because, as vicious as these creatures are, they are mere victims of a greater evil: Politics. As we learn, the NRC has been using the tunnels beneath New York City as their toxic waste dumping ground for years. Our heroes discover Wilson already knows about the creatures but hasn’t done anything about them yet in fear of the bad publicity. Typical to government officials, he, as well as his superiors, care more about their jobs than the people who will suffer because of their incompetence. They’ve already destroyed their sewer home with their radioactive sludge, displacing, disfiguring, and dooming them in the process.
The protagonists of C.H.U.D. are the heroes because they’re the ones who respect the people that the rest of society shoves aside. George, A.J., and Bosch understand that homelessness is not a choice, nor are the people degenerates who are trapped in such a situation. Homeless characters suffering from mental health issues are treated with care by the trio rather than demonized. The so-called “bag lady” arrested for trying to steal a cop’s gun, Mrs. Monroe (Ruth Maleczech), is presented as put together and kind…a far cry from the way we usually see such characters portrayed. Sure, our heroes fear the creatures, but their true horror comes from seeing what is happening to the homeless community as they trudge deeper beneath the city: the gruesome wound that one man is afraid to get treated at a hospital; the horrible transformation these otherwise harmless people are going through; the total abandonment of the government which has left them to fend for themselves against such horrors. George, A.J., and Bosch all survive because they’re able to find the most basic element of human decency within themselves and want to help.
I wouldn’t blame some audience members if they found themselves rooting for the monsters during the climactic finish that has the C.H.U.D. making their way to the surface. In a way, the creatures reflect the image society has created for them. The average person may see someone on the streets as grotesque or even inhuman…and so the monsters of Cheek’s film reflect that back at the city with a hungry vengeance. As A.J. mentions, it’s scary up there on the surface. The world is a place of judgment, of ridicule, of greed. The C.H.U.D. returning to the surface to wreak havoc…why, that’s just these glowy-eyed, stretchy-limbed, radioactive people eaters’ way of quite literally eating the rich. Consider it their much-deserved justice onto a society that threw them out like trash, only to panic when said “trash” decides to climb out of the gutter and refuse to take it anymore.
But again, a common complaint about C.H.U.D. is the lack of creature carnage, as well as an ending that seems to, well, just end with a whole lot of monsters still residing in the sewer. While the obvious answer is that they didn’t have the budget for a bigger finale, I’d posit that the film finishes right where it should. Wilson is caught in an explosion within a very 80s vehicle that bursts into flames at the slightest tap. Our heroes win. A few monsters may still be alive, but the all-too-human villain has been vanquished, a valuable lesson learned that the homeless are no less a member of this society than you or me, and they deserve to be treated that way.
Hopefully, more take that lesson to heart in the real world. And while we’re at it, let’s show more appreciation for C.H.U.D., a monster movie much smarter than it often gets credit for. 🩸
About
Matt is a writer and wannabe werewolf who began his love of horror at the ripe old age of 3 with Carpenter’s Christine. He has a horror podcast called Killer Horror Critic which he does with his wonderful wife and has previously been published on Bloody Disgusting, Shudder’s The Bite, and Daily Grindhouse. You can also find more of his reviews and ramblings at his blog, KillerHorrorCritic.com.
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