The Blob**

 So I got the review for the blog done earlier, but I was on the treadmill when I was dwelling on the film some more. One of the reasons I like the 1958 film is the centralized setting with a big potentially global problem. Granted, the blob itself, where it came from especially, is different between the two films. The bio-weapon angle specifically definitely separates the 1988 film from the original. And I like that sort of update. Why not try something different besides the upgrade in special effects and heaping, helping of goo gore? Plus, the opening credits really made an impression on me this time. I had that Ray Bradbury vibe coming off the screen at me. A bunch of films in the 80s really sort of send off that horror comes to small town midwest vibe. Before the meteor fell into the nearby woods, the town was going through its usual routines. The big football game, dates set up by teens, the badboy Dillon testing his motorcycle daredevil courage with a defective ride (and needing tools from a friendly local mechanic) against a bridge that is out, the sheriff getting up the nerve to ask out the busy diner proprietor, the kids hoping to sneak into a slasher film very much big business in the decade. The opening credits offer a vacant town in various locations before anyone has really awakened from their sleep and slumber, the calm before the storm. A lot of this gets lost once the blob arrives and starts attaching itself to arms and gradually envelopes folks. That the film would kill so many friendly people and likeable folks, with even a kid absorbed and disintegrated, this told you that no matter who you are the bio-hazard blob didn't care...it just "eats". And I always liked when characters not typically the heroes of a film like this develop out of necessity. When up against a creature growing in size due to each person it devours and government scientists sent in to study and contain it, Dillon and Shawnee had to circumvent insurmountable odds. Great stuff. Steve McQ and his friends worked together with law enforcement to quell the blob in the 1958 film. So while there are similarities, I like that the differences are variable enough.