Sometimes, the most simple movie monsters can become the most terrifying, especially when it comes to gruesome kills and excellent practical effects. The eponymous monster in 1988’s The Blob, directed by Chuck Russell from a script he co-wrote with Frank Darabont, acts as a giant slithering stomach, dissolving its food for digestion with extreme acidity. There’s no trace of intelligence in the amoeba-like entity; it’s just an insatiable need to feed. That means that not only is the body count high for this ever-growing creature, but the deaths are deliciously mean-spirited and unforgettable thanks to gruesome special makeup effects from Tony Gardner (Zombieland, “Chucky”) and an incredible team of artists.
Russell and Darabont reinforce the SFX showcase with unpredictability and meticulous characterization to ensure that not only do the character deaths look painful, but they also hurt emotionally. It’s not just the creature effects that make the Blob’s early reveal so effective and memorable, but its narrative impact, too.
The Setup
Much like the 1958 sci-fi horror classic that it’s based on, this remake follows a small town besieged by an amorphous alien lifeform that crash lands and begins feasting upon the residents. It’s up to unlikely teen heroes to stop it. Here, The Blob introduces Donovan Leitch as Paul, a high school football player with a heart of gold and the contemporary update to Steve McQueen’s 1958 protagonist. The first act follows Paul as he finally works up the nerve to ask out cheerleader Meg Penny (Shawnee Smith), while outsider Brian Flagg (Kevin Dillon) seeks to fix his bike while evading the watchful eyes of the Sheriff’s office. The town of Arborville, California, is so preoccupied with its daily struggles and drama, along with the unusually warm weather, that only the local Can Man (Billy Beck) notices the meteorite crash landing in the woods nearby.
Can Man finds the meteorite cracked in two, with a pale jelly inside. His curiosity jumpstarts the substance; it latches onto his hand and begins its reign of terror.
The Monster Reveal
Paul and Meg’s first date gets off to a rocky start, first through Paul’s introduction to Meg’s dad, Tom (Art LeFleur), then with a surprise collision with Brian Flagg and Can Man on the road. Brian and Meg take the older vagabond to the hospital, where they wait to give their statement to authorities and ensure the patient is okay. Russell shows the viewer the truth; the man is being horrifically consumed alive in a quiet exam room, with no one the wiser. Paul offers Meg a drink from the vending machine, where his curiosity leads him to the discovery of the Blob’s purpose.
Poor Meg discovers Paul tucked away in the doctor’s office, almost wholly enveloped in the Blob. As it’s dragging him toward the open window, he’s reaching for her while screaming in terror and pain. Only his right arm is untouched, and in Meg’s attempts to pull him free, the arm is severed by digestive acids, and Meg falls backward, knocking herself unconscious against the wall. Paul is dissolved alive in the creature’s stomach acids.
Russell and Darabont borrow a trick from Psycho to pull the rug out from under viewers by the end of the first act; Paul isn’t the Steve McQueen character of this film at all. The image of Paul screaming in pain and horror as he reaches for a shocked Meg sears into your skull, and it’s only the start of a town wide massacre. This shocking death doesn’t just subvert expectations by removing the conventional hero from the equation; it serves as a stunning SFX showcase and relays important information about the creature.
The Death Toll
True to its name, the Blob lacks shape, which means that it can fit into and through anything, from kitchen drains to tiny cracks in walls or floors. It also happens to grow bigger the more it feeds, making it all the harder to evade. Suffice it to say that this movie monster comes with a high kill count as it makes its way across Arborville.
Gardner and crew deliver no shortage of brutal, ooey, gooey on-screen demises. There are eleven deaths on screen for named characters, each consumed in various grisly ways, but the Blob partakes in multiple human buffets over the course of the film. The first is the requisite theater sequence, which sees the Blob unleash its first feeding frenzy upon unsuspecting horror movie watchers. The indiscriminate killer then devours any and all military personnel encountered in the sewers before its final siege in the streets in front of the town hall.
With a total death toll of roughly 30 or so human snacks, the Blob is one of the more vicious killing machines to emerge from the ’80s. No one is safe here. Not the designated hero, not the scientists that made him, and especially not the children.
The Impact
The Blob wasn’t a box office success upon its release in 1988. Released amidst peak summer blockbuster season, the remake failed to register with critics and audiences alike, only finding its fans over time after releasing on home video. Thanks to the gnarly practical effects, the Blob remains a timeless movie monster. That’s also helped by Russell and Darabont’s script, which adds humor to the story and gives a refreshing conspiracy theory twist- the alien lifeform isn’t alien at all but a manmade biological weapon.
Russell and Darabont’s script, under Russell’s direction, complete with a fantastic cast and innovative, practical effects come together to make The Blob an all-time great. The Blob is a simple concept, just a shapeless entity that operates solely on the instinct to consume. The way it grows more vibrant and pink as it digests more human tissue and blood, combined with the unpleasant nature of its feeding habits, ensured this movie monster earned its spot in the pantheon of great movie monsters. So much so that another remake is in development now.
Where to Watch
The Blob doesn’t appear on streaming often, but it’s available on 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital.
In television, “Monster of the Week” refers to the one-off monster antagonists featured in a single episode of a genre series. The popular trope was originally coined by the writers of 1963’s The Outer Limits and is commonly employed in The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and so much more. Pitting a series’ protagonists against featured creatures offered endless creative potential, even if it didn’t move the serialized storytelling forward in huge ways. Considering the vast sea of inventive monsters, ghouls, and creatures in horror film and TV, we’re borrowing the term to spotlight horror’s best on a weekly basis.
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