CHUD“…and that’s when the C.H.U.D.s came at me.”

A woman is walking her dog down a dark New York City street, passing by a manhole cover when suddenly something comes out and grabs the woman, dragging her down into the sewers. And her little dog too. Thus begins this cult B-movie that’s more popular because of the film title then the actual film.

C.H.U.D. stands for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller and 30 years ago it hit theatres with a thud. It was given a limited theatrical release before it found it’s following on video. John Heard is a former fashion photographer who’s latest assignment is photographing New York City’s homeless, several who live in the sewers. Meanwhile police Captain Bosch (Christopher Curry) is frustrated continuing a cover up and starts looking into the sudden flood of missing persons that have been occurring lately. He interviews Daniel Stern who runs a soup kitchen.

Stern thinks that there’s a government conspiracy going on that is covering things up. Stern and Curry end up proving that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been dumping nuclear waste in the sewers and something has mutated. Something that has run out it’s homeless food supply and is now looking to the surface for food.

“Of course you’ll have a bad impression of New York if you only focus on the pimps and the C.H.U.D.’s.”

The C.H.U.D.’s are seldom shown, there’s very little gory and this is a pretty cheesy movie but it has its moments and it’s kind of fun. It even spawned a really bad sequel that had little to with the first other than the film title. C.H.U.D. II – Bud the Chud .