The Blob is considered by many cinephiles as one of the greatest B monster movie to come out from the 50s’. It helped launch careers for actor Steve McQueen and directors Irvin Yeaworth and Russell Doughten. The story takes place in a small, quiet town where a meteor crash-lands in a lone forest. What emerges from the meteor is an odd blob that is sentient, then immediately goes around hunting and eating people. Slowly, the blob becomes bigger and bigger to the point where it is almost impossible to stop. Thankfully, our main hero, Steve, and the town sheriff fight off the blob by defeating it with cold CO2.
What I loved about the 1958’s The Blob is that it manages to play it serious and playful throughout its story. The movie is a simple monster horror film that manages to be a throwback to classic Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds while also being an original story at the same time. It takes a simple premise of a blob monster and manages to expand into an epic horror adventure. Seeing the blob becoming bigger and stronger was not only disgusting but also terrifying to watch. Seeing the practical effects of the blob was impressive to look at because this movie came out during the 1950s. The way they played with miniature sets and stop-motion animation to create the blob was beautiful to see. I also liked that the movie ends with a cliffhanger, where it leaves a small hint that it might not be over with the blob, and most likely will come back somehow.
The Blob 1958 manages to still be entertaining and fun. It’s a movie that balances between horror, sci-fi, campy, and corny all in one story. Although the 1958 movie would be regarded as a classic in the B movie monster genre, it would be years later that it would become relevant again when a remake was released in 1988, directed by Chuck Russell and written by Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont. The remake tells the same story as the original but adds small creative liberties that both enhance and update it to keep it fresh and entertaining. What makes the remake surprisingly better than the original was the way they made the blob more terrifying and smarter compared to the original. While the effects for the blob from 1958 were impressive for its time, the choppy stop-motion animation made it look slow and harmless. In the remake, the added details to the monster make it appear more menacing and disgusting. Seeing the blob ooze with bubbles and having veins was a fantastic addition. The animation effects on the blob were also well done; seeing it moving at a rapid pace made the blob a much greater threat. Watching the blob chasing after its victims was both enthralling and horrifying. I also liked a smart and clever the blob was in the remake; seeing the blob using vents, sewers and crawl spaces to hunt its prey was brilliant. It both emphasized how smart and versatile the blob was and how capable it was in hunting its prey. Also, seeing the effects of the victims getting eaten and digested by the blob was gruesome to watch. The level of detail placed to make the bodies contort and dissolve while being consumed by the blob was grotesque and surprisingly beautiful to look at.
Although the original is a regarded classic in the zeitgeist of monster horror cinema, the 1988 remake is one of the rarest examples where the remake manages to pay respect and greatly improve on the first movie. The writers go out of their way to subvert expectations by both keeping the story close to the original but also adding small twists to make it unpredictable. At first, the story tricks the audience into believing that Paul would be the main character of the movie. However, the film rug-pulls its audience by killing him off via the blob in the first act of the movie. What makes this decision so clever and genius is that it both plays as a satire on the obvious savior-type characters and it helps portray the blob as an unstoppable jello. Seeing Paul die so early helped convey the idea that the blob spares no one and will consume anything or anyone to satisfy its hunger. It’s also a playful nod and reference to the main character from the original, where we see Steve going against the blob. The best moment from the remake was the twist with the United States military. It reveals that the U.S government secretly created the blob and purposely dropped it on the small town as a test experiment to see its effects. This was a great addition to the premise because it now makes the conflict feel more weighted and grander. Seeing the army coming in to evacuate the civilians and trying to get rid of the blob gave an extra sense of tension and suspense to the scene. It also acts as a solid political commentary against the U.S government of placing immense power in military complexes and taking advantage of political unrest with foreign countries to commit heinous crimes against citizens. It’s not a surprise that the remake places this theme in its narrative, knowing that it did came out during the time of the Cold War.
The ending of The Blob 1988 amazing because seeing the blob wreaking havoc on the citizens and eating everything in its wake was a spectacle. Its massive, towering form was a sight to behold, and it once again showed the great talents behind effects artists, designers, and animators that brought the blob to life. They truly made the monster more lively and dangerous compared to its original counterpart. I also loved that the movie also ends with a cliffhanger where a deranged priest holds a small glass of the blob in his hands. Once again, keeping the tradition of having an open-ended conclusion. Sadly, the movie wouldn’t gain enough traction to get a sequel, but knowing how popular classics are getting revived, I look forward to The Blob receiving a similar treatment.
