Movie Info
Movie Name: The Blob
Studio: Palisades, California Inc.
Genre(s): Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Release Date(s): August 5, 1988
MPAA Rating: R
Next time, no ghost pepper in my burritos
Something is growing in the small town of Arborville, California. A meteorite has fallen to Earth, and what was found inside quickly began to grow. Cheerleader Meg Penny (Shawnee Smith) and town rebel Brian Flagg (Kevin Dillon) find themselves in a race to save the town and their family from the threat killing people around town. With no one willing to believe them, Meg and Brian could be all that stand between the world…and the blob!
Directed by Chuck Russell (who co-wrote the screenplay with Frank Darabont), The Blob is a science-fiction horror movie. The film is a remake of the 1958 movie The Blob and was initially released to average reviews. Since its release, the film has gained a cult following and also more positive reviews.
I loved The Blob. I remember wanting to see it in the theater (too young), but immediately renting it when it arrived on VHS. I watched the movie multiple times and enjoyed it for what it was…a gloppy, sloppy, gross horror film that was a lot of fun. Unlike a lot of ’80s horror movies that haven’t aged well, I think The Blob has potentially gotten better.
Bad first day…when your date is eaten by an amorphous acidic blob…and you pull his arm off
The movie is a few things. It is a remake of the classic film which took more of a tongue-in-cheek approach (complete with the goofy “Beware of the Blob!” song), but this film plays the blob as much more serious and deadly. It is a conspiracy theory film in a time when conspiracy theories were just starting to bubble up. The movie was pre-X-Files but has a very X-Files approach to the whole story shadowy cabal and cover-up which makes sense in the time of “big government is evil”. The movie finally is also kind of a riff on the whole genre like the original. The heroes of the movie are a cheerleader and a town punk (after the traditional “football hero” is killed off quickly). While everyone else cowers and runs from the blob, these two face off against it with guns, bombs, and snowblowers (ok, snowblowers don’t sound so tough).
Both Shawnee Smith and Kevin Dillon do a good job in the film leads. They are different enough to make it work and strong enough to be believable in their roles. The movie has a lot of character actors filling the ranks including Jeffrey DeMunn, Candy Clark, Del Close, Art LaFleur, Paul McCrane, Bill Moseley, Jack Nance, Erika Eleniak, and Joe Seneca. While at the time the film was made, this was probably a rather low budget cast, but it feels strong now.
The biggest tragedy is that it looks like he finished the dishes before being killed
This Blob made the blob much more threatening. The original film had a blob that looked more like a combination of canned cranberry sauce and Jell-O. This blob is lumpy, tumorous, has flailing appendages, and is filled with crap that it has absorbed. The practical effects in the film are strong, but some of the chromakey effects haven’t aged as well.
I’ll say it again, The Blob is a fun movie. There are movies that are better, but The Blob is high on my list of movies I’d pop in and watch at any time. It has almost everything you’d want from a horror film and an ’80s film. With such an enjoyable movie and a rampant following, it might be time for a sequel…a modern day Son of the Blob might actually work.
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