The Blob (1988)

 

****/*****

I had forgotten just how icky and gooey the gore effects are. Or perhaps they are considered glop effects. Anyway to see humans absorbed or deteriorated "into" a blob "from a meteor" perhaps from space or maybe even man-made as food being digested is equal parts disgusting and fantastic. Yes, the effects would be done completely through upgraded technology, but I just loved the practical goopy effects of 1988. Direction by Chuck Russell (he wrote the screenplay with Darabont also for the previous year's A Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors) gives us plenty of victims grabbed by the gelatinous blob to be absorbed and credit to the screenplay for killing characters often survivors in other films of this remake of the 1958 type. DeMunn, the sheriff in the film, has a long time relationship with Darabont, and he's sweet on cafe/diner owner, Candy Clark, and neither escape the blob. In fact, a showstopper has Clark stuck in a phone booth (remember them?) as the blob surrounds every side, with her seeing DeMunn pressed against the glass to assure us neither will make it out alive. Shawnee Smith of Saw fame is a cheerleader while Kevin Dillon is the leather jacket toughie with the motorcycle,  joining forces to hopefully vanquish the blob through the use of cold, learning of this weakness while holing up in a freezer. Joe Seneca, a terrific actor, has the evil government scientist role, putting Dillon and Smith in danger because they know too much about what caused the blob and that the small town's residents lives are in jeopardy. This cast is so much fun. Art Lafleur of Trancers (1985) and many other films is Smith's father, a pharmacist who mistakenly believes highschool football letterman jacket Leitch got some Trojans to boink his daughter, Del Close as a priest who collects "blob ice" and is badly burned, little Kenworthy as Smith's brother who I knew from "Return of the Living Dead Part II" the same year, Ricky Paull Goldin as Leitch's buddy hoping to get laid, and an early appearance from Erika Eleniak as Goldin's hot date. You do get a lot of prosthetics and makeup, too. 

I'd say the big highlights include an incredible setpiece at a drive-in, a deputy broken in half, a cook pulled into a sink drain, a scientist pulled into a manhole, a motorcycle trick Evel Knievel would be impressed by as Dillon must pass over the blob in a sewer pipe with Smith holding on tight, with some especially yucky effects involving the blob devouring a vagrant, projection operator, and patrons in theater seats unable to flee in time. Dillon as the supposed thug and bad boy, grabs the reins and succeeds as the unlikely hero with Smith, taking charge and growing up fast, his equal as the heroine stepping up because the fate of townsfolk depends on it. Sadly Moseley (as hazmat suit scared out of his gourd) and Jack Nance (as a hospital doc) don't have big roles.

Many ponder remakes that are better than the original films before them, and while I have commented on how much I enjoy the Steve McQ version in the past on the blog, I think the 1988 Russell film surpasses it because of the better effects and shocking moments where strong characters are destroyed early and often. Great use of fire extinguishers and cold as weaponry while guns and explosives are of no help.