I Believe C.H.U.D. (1984) is the Greatest Movie Title Acronym of All Time

Many thanks to the dozens of you who showed up for Tape Night at the Sidewalk Cinema last night! Back in July, Sidewalk programmer Corey Craft asked me if I was open to hosting this event on September 11th, and I said “Hey wouldn’t it be funny if I showed a scuzzy New York City movie like C.H.U.D.,” and he didn’t call the FBI, so here we are. I’ve never felt more patriotic. Speaking of the FBI though, it’s time to talk about acronyms.

Folks, I love a good acronym. I’m a senior copywriter at my day job, and we deal with acronyms all the time. Most of them aren’t very interesting, but I am fascinated by industry-specific shorthand in general. The guys I work with sound like they’re speaking a different language sometimes.¹

I’m particularly fond of acronyms that have simply morphed into regular words over time too. I delight in learning and forgetting and relearning that words like “radar” and “scuba” and “laser” and “taser” began as acronyms.² Especially when they have an onomatopoeic ring to them. (Doesn’t “scuba” just sound aquatic?)

And then there are acronymic movie titles, which are a real treat. And I’m going to convince you that C.H.U.D. is the best of the best.

There are some iconic acronyms of cinema, of course. E.T. is perhaps the most well known, but it’s not enough letters; the best acronyms are the ones you can pronounce like a word instead of spelling them out.³ M*A*S*H was a phenomenon that went on to spawn a long-running TV show, but I hate how it’s stylized with asterisks instead of periods.⁴ (And only three asterisks! Bad!) And I have to say that WALL-E is an elite acronym across the board—a great abbreviated term (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth Class), a fun one to say out loud (you’re saying it the way WALL-E says it right now aren’t you), and even a neat stylization with the hyphen.

There are dozens of others. Some are too well known to be interesting, like S.W.A.T., LOL, or D.O.A. Some introduce audiences to a term that’s new or just catching on, like The DUFF or A.C.O.D. Others are too much of a stretch to work at all; you’re telling me that C.R.A.Z.Y. is a film about people named Christian, Raymond, Antoine, Zachary, and Yvon?⁵ Please get all the way outta here.

But the best ones work on multiple levels. They’re clever groupings of words and terms, they’re vehicles for coining new terms, and most importantly, they’re just plain fun to say. C.H.U.D. is one of the elite movie acronyms that accomplishes all of these things and more.⁶

Let’s break it down word for word—and within the context of the movie poster, since I imagine most people discovered C.H.U.D. by way of the box art.⁷

We begin with “cannibalistic.” Tremendous. I’m already in. Let’s unpack it a bit further though. It’s clear from the poster and the tagline that this film takes place in New York City. Cannibals living somewhere remote (like the Amazon rain forest a la Cannibal Holocaust) are one thing, but you’re telling me that these cannibals live in one of the biggest cities in the world? You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.

The next piece of titular information is “humanoid,” which is even more intriguing. The word contains context clues, but what exactly is a “humanoid” in this case? And if these creatures are not fully human but something more (or less?) then is it really cannibalism if they’re eating regular people? Or are they eating each other as well? I have other biological questions, but let’s continue.

The last two words beg to be paired together: “underground dwellers.” The plot of C.H.U.D. revolves around a group of unhoused humans living underground in the NYC sewers while trying to avoid being snatched by the chuds. Meanwhile, the chuds don’t only dwell underground. The film begins with a chud snatching a lady and her dog off the street, then we see a chud assault a man in a phone booth, and it gets even wilder from there. So what’s keeping them in the sewers? Certainly there’s not some sort of government conspiracy afoot, right?

The acronym is quite strong. It’s unique, it’s descriptive, it’s mysterious, and it’s memorable. All the things you could ever want from a movie title. There’s even a bonus second acronym using the same letters that’s revealed in the third act.

It’s hard to ask for more from a name, but C.H.U.D. has been a wellspring of linguistic delights since its origin. Though you won’t find “chud” in the dictionary (yet), the word has become accepted slang more than 40 years later.⁸

According to the internet, about a decade ago, the hosts of the Chapo Trap House podcast began using “chud” as an insult for people of lesser intelligence or weak moral fiber (or both, in many cases). I’m of the opinion that we can never have enough synonyms for “idiot,” so I think it’s pretty delightful that terms like this get added to the lexicon every so often.⁹ And I love that a grimy cult film inspired one that’s still in rotation.

I enjoy this film quite a bit—perhaps more than I should, given its level of objective quality—but the title might actually be its secret weapon. I think that’s fine though. From a marketing standpoint, the name should be a film’s strongest asset. It got a few butts in the seats back in 1984. It got video stores across America to place the VHS box on the horror shelf year after year. And it inspires weirdos like me to screen it at local cinemas to this day.

C.H.U.D. is now streaming on Pluto TV, and it is available to rent elsewhere.

1. As a reminder: It’s 2025 and “guys” is gender neutral. But since I work for a construction company, yes, it is mostly male guys.

2. I will never forget that NASCAR is an acronym, though, since I always treat it with the all-caps respect it deserves.

3. Speaking of E.T., I discovered only yesterday that “Mac” of Mac and Me is also an acronym. (It stands for “mysterious alien creature,” which is terrific.) I guess that’s what I get for never having seen Mac and Me.

4. B*A*P*S also does the thing with the asterisks. It kinda makes sense with M*A*S*H for military reasons, so are the titular Black American princesses using asterisks to emphasize their royalty? Also, why is the “s” capitalized if it’s only there to pluralize? Someone has to ask the important questions.

5. The director of C.R.A.Z.Y. went on to direct Dallas Buyers Club. Anything is possible like Kevin Garnett said.

6. A few others that would be in the elite tier: C.H.O.M.P.S. (“canine home protection system”), D.A.R.Y.L. (“data-analysing robot youth lifeform”), and Looker (“light ocular-oriented kinetic emotive responses”). Those writers understood the assignment.

7. C.H.U.D. did make a decent profit at the box office, grossing $4.7 million against a budget of $1.25 million. But it reached cult film status when it hit video store shelves and became a mainstay of the horror section all throughout the 80s and 90s.

8. You will find it in Wikipedia, however, listed as an “old Slavic term for Finnic peoples.” Apparently Chuds (or “Chudes,” which is how I assume it’s pronounced in this instance) were exalted as beautiful people in Russian folklore, namely for their lightly colored eyes. This is actually what inspired the visual effects artists to make the chuds’ eyes glow in this film. (That’s not true, but it sounds pretty good, right?)

9. My top term of this lot is “troglodyte,” in part because it’s so much fun to say and because it references prehistoric times. But I’d have to include “maroon” and “nincompoop” in my top three. Please sound off in the comments with your favorite synonym for “idiot.”