C.H.U.D.

C.H.U.D. (1984)

** (out of 4)

Police Captain Bosch (Christopher Curry) begins to investigate the disappearance of his wife and soon realizes that even more people are missing. Soon he teams up with a photographer (John Heard) and a soup kitchen owner (Daniel Stern) and the trio try to uncover what is behind all the people disappearing.

C.H.U.D. has become a cult favorite over the years thanks in large part to its effective poster and the fact that it has a pretty nice cast who would go on to become well known. For me the film is a decent "B" picture but nothing more as there's really not anything too special here. Fans of the low-rent 80's horror movies will probably want to check it out but the film should've been much better than it actually is.

The problem I have with the film is that so much of the action takes place off the screen. We know what the monsters are doing yet we never really see any of it for the first hour as they are kept off screen with the viewer only getting a couple brief looks at their arms. This here was probably done because of the budget but there's just not enough attacks going on to keep you entertained. I'd also argue that there's no suspense or tension to be found anywhere and it certainly doesn't help that it's dragged out for 96-minutes.

The cast is certainly a lot better than the actual material. Curry makes for a good lead and I thought he gave a good performance. Future HOME ALONE stars Heard and Stern are both entertaining here and you'll want to keep you eyes open for a young John Goodman. The monsters, once we do finally see them, look pretty good but sadly their appearance happens way too late into the picture.