The Deepest Cuts: C.H.U.D. (1984)

The Deepest Cuts is a weekly invitation into some of the sleaziest, goriest, most under-explored corners of horror and cult film online. Every title will be streamable and totally NSFW. Whether it’s a 1960s grindhouse masterpiece, something schlocky from the 90s, or hardcore horror from around the world, these films are guaranteed to shock, disturb, tickle, or generally blow your mind.

A gnarly green claw reaching up and pushing aside a manhole cover. A fluke-like, decomposing face glimpsed in the reflection of a quarantine mask. A flash of bared teeth – sharp, fang-like chompers. These are the Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers (C.H.U.D.), living beneath the streets of Manhattan, thriving in the dank waste of modern society. And as long as they’re staying deep underground, attacking only the city’s least-wanted, it’s of little concern to city officials; but as the film’s opening demonstrates, the C.H.U.D.s are hungry, and they’re coming for average, above-ground citizens – and their little dogs, too. And, they’re awesome.

Like its 1979 predecessor in environmental horror, Prophecy, C.H.U.D. combines its critique of institutionalized disregard for the earth with a similar concern for a group of institutionally disregarded citizens – in this case, the homeless of New York City. Living in the grime-filled tunnels below, they survive on the soup-kitchen-diet provided by “Reverend AJ,” played by a young (and perpetually filthy) Daniel Stern, who has noticed – and attempted to force the police to notice – that several of his “flock” have recently gone missing. He’s finally able to convince Police Captain Bosch to investigate when Bosch’s wife similarly goes missing; what they quickly discover in the city’s sewer system are the abandoned accessories of a radiation clean-up crew, including a geiger counter, which immediately surges when activated.

Meanwhile, a local photographer whose work focuses on the underground community (whose wife is pregnant – always a side-plot in environmental horror, for obvious reasons) finds that his subjects are being brutally attacked by “monsters” they encounter in the tunnels.

Unfolding like a 1970s conspiracy film, these investigators, the necessary blend of amateur and professional, face down the officials who are hiding a terrible, contaminating secret, and who believe they can erase the damage they’ve created by filling the city’s tunnels with gas – no matter the danger and “collateral damage” to the city’s unwashed.

Though its ambitions are grand and politically meaningful, the real success of C.H.U.D. lies in its low-budget, slow-reveal effects. The C.H.U.D.s themselves are immediately reminiscent of the “creature feature” monsters of the likes of Z-movie pioneers Ed Wood and Larry Buchanan, particularly with their glowing yellow eyes and radioactive-green blood. These costumes are in stark contrast with the far more realistic, disturbing gore left behind when they attack; the overall effect is a unique and totally righteous combination of drama, suspense, and glee-inducing schlock. Whether you think nuclear power poses a danger to the environment, C.H.U.D. will have you rooting not only for the underdogs as they reveal the government’s dirty dealings, but also, perhaps, for these completely CGI-free monsters themselves.