Reviewed by Geno McGahee
In New York City, people are missing, mostly homeless that live in the sewer tunnels, and the police are baffled. The man that has been taking care of the homeless, making them meals, and giving them counsel, A.J. Shepard (Daniel Stern), has been reporting the missing people for some time, but when Captain Bosch’s (Christopher Curry) wife becomes one of the people unaccounted for, the search is officially on. Shepard and Bosch team up to figure out what is going on in the sewers, and, at the same time, a photographer, George Cooper (John Heard) is also beginning to realize that something very wrong is going on.
The government scumbags have been running a secret program where they have stored toxic waste in the tunnels and created these Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers, and these zombies are very neat looking. They have florescent green eyes, sharp teeth, and the best thing is that “They are not staying down there anymore.” I love that line.
The C.H.U.D. are coming out of the sewers and one of the best scenes of the film is when two cops (John Goodman, Jay Thomas), are at a diner and are flirting with the waitress. While sitting on separate stools, they hear a noise and when they turn around, they see several of these zombies looking in. They are now all over the place, including apartment buildings and the street, and the plan is to now gas all of the zombies by covering up all of the manholes to prevent them from escaping, creating a gas chamber, thus killing those annoying C.H.U.D.
One of the best characters in this movie is the crooked NRC Official, “Wilson” (George Martin). He is part of the big cover up, and is now playing damage control, and part of that is to eliminate the witnesses, such as Captain Bosch, George Cooper, and A.J. Shepard. Shepard and Cooper are stuck in the tunnels and considering that Daniel Stern plays the part of Shepard, it might be safe to say that he is “Home Alone with the C.H.U.D.” In fact, that may have been a good crossover film.
This movie has a great tempo, great special effects, and an interesting storyline. The characters are well developed and they don’t focus on the monsters. They bring them in gradually and the fact that there are a bunch of them is very entertaining. This is definitely a great movie and I highly recommend it.
Scared Stiff Rating: 8/10 Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers…you can’t get much better than that!
