It's been a while, so I thought I'd focus on yet another movie which I feel hasn't gotten the credit it deserves. Today it's "The Blob," which was the 1988 remake of the 1958 film of the same name. As usual, I'll start with a brief, spoiler-free summary, then go on with a longer, spoiler-rich recap, followed by a discussion of some of the movie's themes, and ending with some background about the cast and crew.
"The Blob" is about the titular monster, an amorphous mass of caustic goo which has crashed near a small town in Colorado. Several teens--football player Paul, cheerleader Meg, and troubled punk Brian Flag, are among the first to encounter this bizarre creature. The Blob quickly reaches town, devouring many people along the way. The Sheriff and his deputy seem unable to combat this problem, since the Blob can change shape, and is impervious to normal weapons. Will anyone be able to stop it, or will the Blob absorb the entire town, and perhaps even the world?
(SPOILERS AHEAD UNTIL NOTED) The film opens on a pleasant autumn day. Most of the town is watching the high school football game, where Paul Taylor is playing effectively, rooted on by pretty cheerleader Meg Penny. Paul asks Meg out on a date for that night, which she eagerly accepts. Meanwhile, outside of town, at Elkin's Grove, Brian Flag is riding and jumping his motorcycle by a wooded gorge. In a local cafe Sheriff Herb Geller is also trying to drum up some romance, with waitress Fran. After Flag damages his bike, he hitches back into town soon enough to encounter the sheriff, who reminds Flag that he'll soon be past the age for juvenile punishment, as Flag is about to turn 18. Flag goes to the garage he works at sometimes, and talks with his boss, Moss, who's busy working on snowmobiles for the upcoming winter tourist season.
As night falls, a local hobo sees an apparent meteorite crashing quite near him, in the same area of Elkin's Grove that Flag had been earlier. At the same time Paul is picking up Meg for their date, which also includes an embarrassing meeting with her pharmacist father, who had an earlier misunderstanding with Paul at the pharmacy. Then the bum discovers the meteorite crash site, where he sees a weird pinkish jellylike form amidst the debris. When he pokes at the slime with a stick, it rapidly flows up and attaches itself on his hand, causing him severe burning pain. The hobo run past Flag, who's retrieving his motorcycle, and out into the road, where Paul and Meg accidentally hit him with Paul's car. Paul, Meg, Flag, and the hobo then drive to the hospital. After a long wait, during which Flag gets disgusted and leaves, Paul goes for a soda and through the door happens to notice that the bum's blanket-covered body looks peculiar. When he and the summoned doctor examine the hobo they see that the poor man is dead, and half of his body is dissolved. Paul manages to make a panicked phone call to the police just before the missing blob, now much larger, falls on and envelopes him. Meg arrives in time to see Paul killed, but she faints as the cops arrive. The police decide that Meg is hysterical, and let her go home. By this time they've also apprehended Flag, whom they think might be involved with the crimes.
The blob next attacks and eats a couple parked in a lover's lane outside of town. Over his deputy's objections, Sheriff Geller releases Flag, as there is no evidence to support the theory that he killed the hobo and/or Paul. Outside the police station, Flag runs into Meg, who sneaked out of her house to bail him out. They go to the local cafe. The blob quickly strikes again, attacking and killing the cook in the kitchen. Meg and Flag only escape by hiding in the freezer. The coldness of the freezer is seen to actively repel the blob. Fran escapes the cafe and calls for help in the pay phone booth outside the cafe. Alas, just before she's absorbed by the blob she sees that Sheriff Geller (who was coming to pick her up for a date) is dead, and being digested in the blob's mass. Meg and Flag leave the cafe and head for Elkin's Grove. Reverend Meeker sees the blob descending into the sewer, and after inspecting the ravaged cafe he takes a sample of some frozen blob pieces in a glass jar.
At Elkin's Grove Meg and Flag encounter a large group of hazmat-suited government agents, who announce that they're with a biological containment team, led by Dr. Meadows. Back in town, the blob invades the movie theater, and starts to pick off the theater employees. Meadows forces Meg and Flag into a van headed back to town, but along the way Flag escapes, while Meg chooses to stay. In town the government agents are rounding up the citizens into one place, in quarantine. Meg realizes her brother is at the movie theater, and she goes to get him, arriving just as the blob attacks and absorbs more patrons. Meg, Kevin, and his friend Eddie narrowly get away into the sewer. Flag returns to Elkin's Grove, and overhears that the biological containment team is actually involved with bio weapons, and the blob is an American-made virus that crashed back to Earth on a satellite. Meadows states that the townspeople are expendable. Flag is discovered, and escapes on his bike while the government agents try to shoot him. He manages to get into the sewer as well. Flag then comes upon Meg just in time, as she and some bio weapons men are trapped in the sewer, as Meadows has shut off all the manholes to try to trap the blob. Eddie is killed, while Kevin flees the sewer through a small grate. Flag opens up the manhole using what looks like a LAWS rocket carried by the surviving bio weapons man. Meadows and his men are about to start a gun battle with Flag, but Deputy Briggs intervenes. Then Dr. Meadows is grabbed by the blob and pulled into the sewer. A round of bullets and a grenade appear to just irritate the blob, and it explodes out of the sewer. A flamethrower attack on it fails, and severely burns Reverend Meeker in the process. While putting out the flames, Meg notices that the blob once again retreats from cold things, in this case the fire extinguisher. She and the survivors flee into the town hall, and beat back the attacking blob with their dwindling supply of fire extinguishers. Just as the blob is about to burst in, Flag shows up, driving the town's snow maker on a truck. He manages to partially freeze the blob, although it's able to counter attack and envelope the truck. Meg leaves the town hall and grabs a fallen government agent's gun and explosives. She distracts the blob from killing Flag, and with some later help from Flag is able to detonate the explosives, causing the blob to freeze completely in the snow. As the townspeople gather outside, Moss rallies them to help him load the frozen blob into an ice house so it doesn't thaw out.
A brief epilogue shows a religious tent revival going on, led by Reverend Meeker. He's preaching about the end of the world in a fiery sermon. Later when a parishioner asks him when the Day of Judgement will happen, he answers, "Soon" while glancing at the blob sample he still has, now thawed out and actively trying to get out of its glass jar prison.
One of the things that strikes me the most about this version of "The Blob" is how it subverts the audience's expectations, but in a good way. For example, the first character to be introduced is Paul, and we're clearly supposed to regard him as the film's hero, its protagonist. But then he's abruptly killed off, in the opening 30 minutes or so. Similarly, the characters of Sheriff Geller and Fran seem important, as sub-heroes, and while we expect them to be threatened, we also anticipate that they'll survive to the end, and probably start their romance. But no--both are also killed off quickly. It's a neat twist. After these unexpected deaths, we don't know who'll be next. It's kind of reminiscent of the HBO series "A Game of Thrones," in that we don't know who will make it. Or there's Eddie. Most horror/sci fi/thriller movies, no matter how brutal and graphic, usually draw the line at killing a child character. But here a kid gets it, in a terrifying and disturbing way, most of it shown. Clearly subverting expectations isn't always a good idea, but in a frightening movie like this, it can be, as it increases the tension, and seems more realistic.
Another good aspect of the 1988 "Blob" is that it changes the story in an interesting fashion. As I noted in my article on good movie remakes (see my April 18, 2015 post, which also mentions this movie in briefer form) the best ones actually have a point. They don't just repeat the first one. But, it's a fine line to tread, because if the story is changed too much that can be negative, too. It's obviously a happy medium that's hard to hit. The major improvement of the 1988 "Blob" is that it changes the blob itself. In the original, it was simply an alien life form that crashed to Earth within a meteorite. Completely random, coincidental. But the remake blob is human-made. American scientists created a bio weapon, and then, evidently panicked and shot it into space to get rid of it. But somehow it evolved (from outer space radiation? Encountering another life form?), and got onto a satellite, which then crashed back onto Earth. Clearly the concept of a blob is fairly ludicrous, but it being an intentionally engineered bio weapon is slightly more realistic, or probable, than a random alien crash landing. It's dangerous, and strong, and difficult to destroy because that's the way it was originally designed, in a more primitive form, of course. Also, having the creature be human-made adds a villain, in the form of Dr. Meadows in particular, and the U.S. government/U.S. military in general. Sometimes it helps a horror movie when the danger isn't just the monster(s), but one's fellow humans, who can't, or won't, cooperate to effectively fight the inhuman threat. George Romero's "Dead" movies pretty much always had this. Movies are affected by their time and place, too. Making the government be the bad guy, or at least an alternate bad guy, wouldn't have seemed right to movie goers in late 1950's America. But in 1988, after 30 years of government corruption such as Watergate, this seemed more depressingly plausible, and it added something to the movie. When the government officials didn't care if the civilians live or die, it really adds to the pressure on these regular citizens to fight these multiple threats themselves.
Another important element in a film is having likable and relatable characters. There are exceptions to this, obviously, but in general it makes a movie better if we care what happens to the folks shown in it. "The Blob" isn't a 3 hour character study, but it still accomplishes this pretty well, I think. Brian Flag has a typical Han Solo/Titus Pullo (from HBO's "Rome" series) type "lovable rogue" character arc. When first encountered he's a troubled youth, who's had numerous brushes with the law, and seems fairly selfish and anti-social. But during the movie he seems to soften. We see him caring about the stricken hobo, and then, more dramatically, looking past his impression of Meg as a vapid cheerleader to get to know her better, sympathize with her, and help out. By the end of the movie he's risking his life to save the entire town. The other characters are fleshed out well enough, too. We like them, or at least can understand why they're acting the way that they do. Even Dr. Meadows' actions made sense to him--he's trying to give his country a powerful weapon to fight the Communist Soviets, and this is more important than a few hundred American civilians' lives. With one exception, I guess. Paul's friend Scott is kind of scummy, as he's taking advantage of his drunk girlfriend, so there's one person who dies that we don't mourn!
The character of Meg has some innovative traits as well. True, she does faint, and is rescued by Flag at least twice. But, she's not some useless damsel in distress. She takes the initiative to leave the military quarantine area to rescue her little brother, and his friend Eddie, from the Blob while they're in the movie theater. She leads them into the sewer, through it, and manages to save her brother. Eddie dies, of course, but Meg bravely dives into the water to attempt to save him from the blob. Then, at the end, it's Meg who leaves the safety of the town hall to save Flag from the blob, using the dead soldier's gun and bombs. She does need Flag to help her out after, but she's still actively fighting this nearly unkillable adversary. It's odd to say, but this 1980's horror flick is rather progressive in some ways.
As I mentioned in my piece about movie remakes, don't take this as a harsh criticism of the 1958 version of "The Blob." That was a fun movie, with a new, quirky monster. The cast and crew did the best they could within the constraints of their budget, and the special effects of the time. Here's another area where the remake excelled, though. The 1988 "Blob" effects were really good. The gore is well done, and appropriately disgusting. And the blob enveloping and dissolving scenes are repulsive, yet convincing. Characters are pulled into sink drains, phone booths are engulfed, weird protoplasm tentacles shoot out and grab people, and it's all real looking. It's not perfect, mind you--there are a few quick moments when the effects of the creature aren't as strong, but the overwhelming majority of scenes are very effective. If another remake is done, the effects would surely be mostly CGI, and most likely, be overly slick and video game-ish, and ultimately hollow and unrealistic, as these often are, in my view. Score another one for practical effects.
(END SPOILERS--SAFE FOR EVERYONE) 1988's "The Blob" was directed by Chuck Russell. Readers with good memories may recall that I did an article about another Russell movie, 1987's "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" back on July 7th, 2018. Other Russell credits include executive producing 1981's "Hell Night," co-writing 1984's "Dreamscape," and directing "The Mask" (1994), "Eraster" (1996), "Bless the Child" (2000), "The Scorpion King" (2002), and "I Am Wrath" (2016). Again like "Nightmare on Elm Street 3," the Blob remake was co-written by Frank Darabont, best known for writing and directing "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994), "The Green Mile" (1999), "The Mist" (2007), and writing/directing/producing 2001's "The Majestic." He also allegedly script doctored "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), "Minority Report" (2002), "Collateral" (2004), and "Godzilla" (2014), and developed the AMC television show "The Walking Dead," and produced, directed, and wrote some of the show's first season episodes.
Brian Flag portrayer Kevin Dillon's credits include "The Delta Force" (1984), "Platoon" (1986), "Heaven Help Us" (1987), "The Doors" (1991), "Hotel For Dogs" (2009), and roles in both the television show and movie versions of "Entourage." Shawnee Smith (Meg Penny) was in such movies as "Annie" (1982), "Summer School" (1987), "Leaving Las Vegas" (1995), television's "Becker" (1998-2004) and 6 entries in the "Saw" movie series. Paul Taylor was played by Donovan Leitch (son of singer Donovan), who was also in "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" (1984, also one of my favorite movie titles ever!), "Glory" (1989), "I Shot Andy Warhol" (1996), and "The Dark Knight" (2008). Jeffrey DeMunn (Sheriff Geller) was in "Christmas Evil" (1980), "The Hitcher" (1986), and several other Frank Darabont movies, like "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994), "The Green Mile" (1999), and "The Mist" (2007). Fran was played by Candy Clark, who was in "American Graffiti" (1973, and she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress for this role), "Q" (1982), "Cat's Eye" (1985), "Cherry Falls" (2000), and "Zodiac" (2007). Joe Seneca (Dr. Meadows) was in such films as "The Taking of Pellham One Two Three" (1974), "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979), "The Verdict" (1982), "Silverado" (1985), "Malcolm X" (1992), and "A Time to Kill" (1996). The character of Deputy Briggs was played by Paul McCrane, best known for roles in "Rocky II" (1979), "Fame" (1980), "Robocop" (1987), "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994), and television's "ER" (1994-2009). Horror movie stalwart Bill Moseley shows up too, in a small role as an injured soldier. Among his credits are parts in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" (1986), "The Night of the Living Dead" (1990 remake), "Army of Darkness" (1993), "The Devil's Rejects" (2005), and "Grindhouse" (2007). Reverend Meeker was played by Del Close, who was a famous comedian and coach/teacher of many famous comedians, such as Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, John Belushi, John Candy, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Shelley Long, Amy Poehler, Gilda Radner, Harold Ramis, and many others. He also acted in "American Graffiti" (1973), "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986), "The Untouchables" (1987), and as far as I can tell, was the only person to act in more than one "Blob" movie, as he was also in the 1972 sequel "Beware! The Blob" (which was directed by, of all people, Larry Hagman, best known for playing J.R. Ewing on the TV show "Dallas"). Jack Harris, who produced the original "Blob," also executive produced and provided the story for the 1988 remake.
So, all in all, I don't know why this version of "The Blob" isn't better known and regarded. It was a box office bomb, earning only 8.2 million compared to its 19 million dollar budget. It does have a cult following, but not enough of one, I think. The 1958 version is still remembered, as a campy, cheesy 1950's monster movie, but its better remake really isn't. But I highly recommend it to horror/sci fi fans. It's frightening, and occasionally gross, with compelling characters, a good plot, and even some intentionally comedic moments. So check it out.
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