Movie Info
Movie Name: The Blob
Studio: Tonylyn Productions Inc./Valley Forge Films/Paramount Pictures
Genre(s): Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Release Date(s): September 10, 1958
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
A meteor crashes to Earth near a small Pennsylvania town. Found by an old man, the creature inside latches onto him…dissolving and growing. Teens Steve Andrews (Steve McQueen) and Jane Martin (Aneta Corsaut) see the creature, but none of the adults will believe them. It is up to the kids of the town to find the Blob and convince the adults of the growing and expanding danger that could threaten the world.
Directed by Irvin Yeaworth Jr., The Blob is a teen horror movie. The film was well received and is a cult classic. The movie featured the first role for lead Steve McQueen and the film was released in a double-feature with I Married a Monster from Outer Space. The film was released in the Criterion Collection (Criterion #91) and was also remade in 1988.
We are definitely teenagers…believe us…please.
The Blob (as a kid) was always marketed as a straight horror film. The idea of an unstoppable monster that absorbs everything it touches is terrifying…but the movie plays more with the genre than just horror. Some who might watch The Blob for the first time could be surprised.
The Blob is just fun. It is a combination of a sci-fi movie of the ’50s, a horror movie of the ’40s, and feels like the beach movies that became popular in the ’60s. The great amalgam of styles makes this movie more than a simple horror or sci-fi film. The style of the movie is completed by the fun “Beware of the Blob” song by Burt Bacharach and Mack David that starts the movie.
The movie has the whole Rebel Without a Cause feel to it with the young cast and the adults who “don’t get them”. Steve McQueen was way too old to be playing a teen (he was pushing thirty) and same is true of his girlfriend Aneta Corsaut, so it is hard to take them seriously as teenagers, fortunately, since the movie is rather playful, it isn’t really necessary. Those wacky kids still stick it to the Man!
The Blob swings by the diner for some takeout
The goofiness of the film is contrasted with the horror of the creature. The Blob is acidic and eats through the people it goes after. It melts the bones, flesh, and absorbs them, making itself bigger. This is gross and hardly humorous. The contrast of the horror and lightness works perfectly. This version of the Blob was more gelatinous than the remake version which is even more gruesome than this version.
The Blob is a fun classic horror film. It has enough horror to entertain the fans of horror while enough other genres to keep others interested. The movie was followed by a some-what sequel in 1972 called Beware! The Blob (or Son of the Blob) which was directed by Larry Hagman (aka J.R. Ewing) but the movie reduces the horror factor and plays like a comedy.
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