Tuesday, October 4, 2016

MR The Blob (1988)



Movie: The Blob (1988) also known as Chuck Russell's The Blog or The Blob (remake)
Directed by Chuck Russell
Release date 1988
Genre Science-fiction horror/creature feature film
Country USA

For as long as the film industry's been popular, people have been remaking and remaking the same films all over again. And I'm talking here from simple generic sequels of black & white films simply rehashing the originals' storyline word for word to what is commonly known as "remakes" nowadays.

I'll be blunt, most remakes are perfectly dispensable. Either producers trying to come up with the next big hit... by simply relying on older hits, or vague attempts at remaking classics for new generations, and usually falling short of making history.

I've always said it, why don't they simply remake bad films? At least there would be room for improvement that way...

Anyways after the relatively successful Richter/Kaufman remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1978, and thanks to the huge boom of the horror genre in the 1980s, a lot of remakes of the genre followed (kind of like around the early 2000s, again, nowadays).

And surprise, for a change, from that came some really good modernizations of older classics. Perhaps because those actually improved on past classics. I call a good remake and new version of an older classic that actually totally surpassed the original and is now the de facto film in the popular consciousness.

Only three remakes ever really replaced the originals in my eyes. John Carpenter's The Thing - basically being a much better put film and much more faithful to the original novella. David Cronenberg's take on the 1958 The Fly, finally brought to relevance with a clever update and body horror brought to a pretty simple "monster film" formula. And then there was the 1988 take on the first creature feature, The Blob.


The plot basically follows the exact same beats as the original film.

One night in the small town of Arborville, California, a couple of teenagers witness a meteor crash in the forest nearby.

What comes out of it is a sort of alien blob from outer space that starts eating any organic matter it finds along the way starting with this old man that first finds it.

The Blob starts growing and growing in size! When they find him the creature has already attached to him, and it soon dissolves the rest of his entire body!

After that it's a race against time as they try to alert the authorities, without any success.

The Blob moves quickly beneath the town and even invades a whole theater (in a great fun recreation of a cult classic scene from the original film!).

What can stop The Blob before it destroys the entire town, heck even the entire world!?

The film also features a small open-ended epilogue alluding to a possible new outbreak after the story...


The film is a remake of the 1958 Irvin Yeaworth film The Blob (also known as The Molten Meteor!).

Produced by Jack H. Harris, Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont's story perfectly mirrors the original film. It updates a lot of elements of the original while definitively bringing it to the 1980s. Director Chuck Russell is mostly known for the 1994 Jim Carrey film The Mask and Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1996 Eraser, but he has also worked on other popular stuff including A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, The Scorpion King, the TV show Fringe and he's rumored to direct the 2018 live-action Mulan film for Disney.

It added a new Cold War-era angle which perfectly suits this original 1950s story. The film also plays with a lot of parallels including the fear of biological weapons, conspiracy theories around the government's implications with a lot of "new" viruses (such as the spreading of AIDS) and has a much more pronounced fear of the unknown typical from alien invasion films from the 50s.

It also helps this was easily one of the goriest films at the time alongside John Carpenter's 1982 The Thing and George A. Romero's 1985 Day of the Dead!

The film features a pretty fun cast of characters, taking cues from the original. There are several key characters, all pretty memorable, mostly led by Jeffrey DeMunn as the town sheriff.


The 1988 Blob is a fantastic movie! With some really impressive and unique special effects.

Taking inspiration from the original's silly premise, they were able to make a terrifying creature out of a pink jelly-monster. The Blob is a lot more aggressive now, throwing tentacles around and dissolving people's skin and meat to the bones.

Some really amazing and bloody effects turn this slow-moving rapidly-increasing blob into a deadly creature. It's really, really great and quite gory!

Finally the music composed by Michael Hoenig really creates a terrifying mood, ditching the original's surf rock for a creepy intense and heavy score! It was heavily inspired by old alien invasion films but brought a modern touch that really helps sell and make this film timeless.


Overall, the 1988 Blob is a cult classic!

This one of course comes Highly Recommended! 

It really stands the test of time! Somehow they were able to make this (fun if) cheesy 1950s alien invasion into a creepy B-movie that really works well! With a much more gruesome 80s style of horror. It does respect the first film's original intentions, and it even pays homages several times to it. Nothing distracting though, just clever allusions to it if you're familiar with the 1958 version.

It's a much better film than the 70s sequel ever was (Son of Blob... ugh..). This Blob is such a fun enjoyable horror film! All the characters are actually interesting. The Blob itself looks wonderfully creepy. It's just a fun horror film!

I give it:
3 / 3 Necronomicons!

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