The Blob (1988)

The Blob is a classic.  I don't think there is anyone who hasn't at least heard of the movie, even if they haven't seen it.  While I initially thought we were going to be watching the original (and was supper excited about it) I wasn't too disappointed to find we were doing another remake.  It was fairly well reviewed and I'm not so beholden to originals to not give a remake a chance.

I'm glad I did, because this movie actually surprised me.  Of course I wasn't expecting much, after all even the original isn't exactly an Oscar winning tour de force.  But what worked for me was that this movie never took itself seriously.  The fact that it was set in the '80s definitely helped.  I'm not sure how well this monster would do in modern society with cell phones and internet.  It really relies on people not knowing where it is or even that it exists at all.  So the time period was crucial.  Not to mention that it set up a lot of the jokes.

And for a movie that unashamedly pulls a full grown man down a sink drain (hilarious by the way) it really had very little gore.  On the flip side, the creature effects were surprisingly good.  The way you could see people through it as they were being digested was very well done for the budget they obviously had.  The only times when it started to look really bad where the full shots of the entire monster at the end.  But the initial shots rode a perfect line between campy and creepy.

The Blob itself is an interesting monster villain.  Like the Alien, it exists for a single purpose.  Eating.  It has no conscience, no far flung motive, and no deep plans.  Eat as many people as I possibly can then move to where I can eat more people.  Of course it does make some odd decisions based on this for plot purposes (chasing a girl and three kids into the sewers while a crowd of people is hanging in town square) but for the most part it does what it does.  This doesn't make for a very deep villain, but as we've discussed, sometimes the best monsters are those whose motivations are either unclear, or very simple.  And so the Blob works for me on a sort of slasher level.  I really can't see making a serious horror film out of it, but it works in the context the film puts him in.

As for the film itself, the humor saves it.  I laughed through most of this movie, and it was obvious I was supposed to.  I appreciate dark humor, so the idea of a guy's girlfriend suddenly devouring him as  he tries to grope her, or a man being pulled down a drain pipe, are hilarious to me.  Not to mention some of the over the top dialogue.  The acting is mostly average at best, with no character deep enough to root for on anything more than a superficial level, but it worked for the movie.

Would I watch it again, probably not.  But I certainly enjoyed watching it once and it definitely had some images I will never forget.