I must admit that I enjoy a well-done internet April Fools joke, and while Google’s various efforts were as clever as ever this year*, nothing yesterday beat Criterion Collection’s brilliant gag…
At Spine #53, C.H.U.D. will finally be joining some of the most influential and important films ever made on the Criterion publishing list. Douglas Cheek’s creature feature masterpiece will get the full treatment, complete with a special new cover and the following special features…
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION
- New digital restoration of the unrated director’s cut, including “excessively violent” shots cut from the theatrical release to avoid an X rating, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Optional soundtrack dubbed in the guttural language of C.H.U.D. (DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition)
- Two audio commentaries, one by director Douglas Cheek and one by filmmaker Pedro Costa
- Visual essay by Tag Gallagher
- Morning in Underground America, a feature documentary about the making of C.H.U.D.
- The Humanoid and the Professor, a conversation with Kent Jones
- Film-to-storyboard comparison
- Downloadable MP3 of the 1987 radio dramatization, featuring Eric Bogosian
- Theatrical and teaser trailers
- PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by film writers J. Hoberman and Dennis Lim, a reprint of the manifesto Cheek issued on the film’s release, and sheet music for the original score
The film is a 2-Disc set, though it is curiously already out of print! A shame that- maybe some lucky chewer will still manage to get their claws on one.
You should also check out Criterion’s special video, where Daily Show writer Kent Jones discusses the depth of thematic content in C.H.U.D.
Nice one Criterion.
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*YouTube’s 1911 bit was cute, Google Motion was even cuter, but today’s “comic sans search” is classic (a link, for as long as they’ve got it going).