I'm certainly no expert on the 1958 horror classic The Blob. I saw it a year or two ago and remember liking it quite a bit, but it seems fair to me to remake it. Really, it's such a basic plot (small town, teenager witnesses people don't believe, amorphous mass killing people) that it's not exactly untouchable. While this new(er) version doesn't have a ton new to say plot-wise (a little anti-government paranoia creeps in though), it delivers in terms of thrills and pretty excellent special effects. It certainly doesn't have the same vibe as the original, but I think that's impossible to duplicate. The 1958 Blob is very much a product of it's time and just feels nostalgic, you know? But still, the 1988 Blob is a solid monster flick in its own right.
Arborville seems like any(tourist)town USA - not a lot going on in the skiing off-season, and kind of old-fashioned... I'm sure a call out to the 1958 film. Not a lot, until a meteor crash lands in the nearby woods, and a homeless can collector pokes a stick in its gooey center. The goo gets on his hand, and in his panic he runs into the town hooligan (who just *may* have a heart of gold), played with a grand mullet by Kevin Dillon. He's all "hang on old dude, you'll be okay" and runs after him. Unfortunately, he chases him into the street, where Paul (Donovan Leitch) and Meg (Shawnee Smith) run into him - with their car - while they're out on their first date. The three of them take the can man with the bad hand to the hospital. As you may expect, the goo kills the man, gets bigger, kills some more, gets bigger, and seeps amok through the streets of Arborville. Pretty straightforward, really.
The best thing about The Blob is the effects. This is a messy, gory movie, and it looks great. The Blob itself has what must be a very acidic makeup, as it melts the flesh off of whomever it comes into contact with. You get to see several bodies in various stages of skin-melting-offedness. The effects of the Blob in motion don't always hold up, although they are fun in an old-school, rear-projection kind of way. The acid stripped bodies are excellent though. Worth the price of admission alone.
Also, I was also legitimately surprised by who makes it and who doesn't. There are at least three characters that I was legitimately bummed to see die - I would have bet money that at least one of them would have made it. And, if you are a fan of backlighting, The Blob has you covered. I loved the scenes out in the woods - you can almost see the spotlights and fog machines doing their thing, but it just looks so damn cool!
About halfway through The Blob, there is a pretty significant turning point that changes the direction of the movie. Up until that point, you get a much more personal monster flick - the Blob is pretty much just attacking one or two people in small settings, and it's pretty awesome. Once you get a little heads up on the Blob's origin though (which I won't spoil), it's gotten to be pretty huge - so the film turns into much more of a city-under-siege type deal. Both parts are well done, but I'll take a monster attacking a teen couple on make-out-point over an attack on a crowded building any day. I just prefer the surprise creep over the screaming chaos, you know?
It is a bit overly cheesy at times. Shawnee Smith probably runs headlong into danger more than any other heroine I've ever seen. Her survival tests the credibility of the whole enterprise, but what can you do? How they (SPOILER) defeat the Blob is a little eye-rolling too.
And there's a dog! The can man has a cool mutt that hangs out with him. He's not in it a lot, but he looks like such a good little buddy I thought I'd throw him in here.
Name: ???
Breed: Who can say? I guess cattle dog / german mix
Function: To bark at the meteor. To make us feel more sympathy for the can man, so we feel bad when he dies.
Fate: He makes it, I think! He sort of vanishes after his person gets the blob on his hand - and we never hear from him again. I like to think he's still running free, out in the backlit woods of Arborville.
Overall, The Blob is pretty cool. Better than I expected it to be... I'm actually a little surprised it doesn't have a little more of a vocal following. It peaks in the first half, which is a bit unfortunate, but there is some good stuff in that second half as well. And really, the effects are pretty killer.
I would recommend this film.
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