The Blob (1988)

The first time I watched Chuck Russell's remake of The Blob (1988) at the old Imperial 3, I thought it was pretty good as far as rehashes go; a fairly faithful modernization of a classic Creature Feature but with one big caveat.

Now, at the time, after that initial viewing, I thought the film contained a huge plot-hole or a bizarre flaw in the narrative. That plot-hole / flaw being, Where in the hell did Sheriff Geller go? One second he was there, saying goodbye to Franny at the cafe, and then suddenly, he up and disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again.

See, the first time through the film, already reeling from watching that poor fry-cook getting sucked down the kitchen-sink drain by our titular and every-growing gelatinous mass of death (-- now that was a helluva scene), we get to the point where Franny (Clark) barely makes it out of her cafe alive and into a phone-booth to call Sheriff Geller (DeMunn) for help.

Just prior to all this voracious and gooey mayhem, we had a sweet little scene of romance that was about to blossom between Franny and Geller -- if given the chance. A chance, alas, that would never come. But! Here, I was so busy focusing on Franny's plight, stuck inside the glass enclosure, as the Blob oozed its way around, encasing and eventually crushing her fragile sanctuary, I failed to recognize the half-digested corpse already floating around in the creature's undulating mass.

Nope, it wasn't until the second viewing a few days later in the very same theater when I finally noticed the Sheriff's badge on the corpse. My bad. And with that, a pretty good movie got even better in my opinion.

But it wasn't until I dusted off the DVD and watched The Blob again around Halloween time this year that I finally noticed something else; the death of a far less significant character until you realize who it might have been. Okay, bear with me, here.

Now, do you remember the scene where our heroine, Meg (Smith), breaks into the local theater, looking for her little brother, only to find the Blob has already beaten her there and in the process of gruesomely processing a lot of moviegoers into something more ... digestible?

Yeah. And then in the middle of all that chaos and mayhem, Meg trips over that one girl, lying unconscious in the aisle?

Now, if you remember back to the beginning of the film, to the football game, this same bespectacled gal was a fellow cheerleader with Meg. 

A best friend perhaps? Which would explain why Meg would stop and reach out for her in all that pandemonium and imminent death. And why it adds a little more weight when this all proves for naught. 

Never noticed that before and I love uncovering little details like that. Alas, the part is un-credited. And 'part' might be stretching things a bit. Still, it's a memorable death in a film chock-full of them, with some outstanding grue FX provided by Dream Quest Images and Anatomorphex.

Often forgotten about when ranking Monster Movie remakes -- or remakes in general, director Russell and screenwriter Frank Darabont had teamed up the year prior with Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987), easily the best sequel in that franchise until New Nightmare (1994); and together, they co-wrote the remake of the original The Blob (1958).

I'm not sure if the big twist of making the new Blob a man-made pandemic was necessary, but it works well enough. Darabont is a huge fan of Stephen King and between the mutant extinction-level germ gone awry to many character names, King's The Stand definitely had a huge influence on the screenplay.

The New York Daily News (August 15, 1988).

What I can tell you for certain is that one of the best things they did was twisting-up one of the central plot points, making it not about “closing the beaches” despite the danger in this derelict winter resort town, but the fact that the beaches were already closed and how the lack of snow was counterproductive when it comes to defeating the monster.

Shawnee Smith carries the film with ease, and her career probably deserved more leading roles like this one. I can also dig the subverting twist that sees the nominal hero (Donovan Leitch) get eaten in the first fifteen minutes of the film, but, in hindsight, if they really wanted to be subversive, it was the rebel outcast (Kevin Dillon) who should’ve been the one to get blobbed to death.

Originally posted on December 19, 2015, at Micro-Brewed Reviews.

The Blob (1988) TriStar Pictures / EP: Andre Blay / P: Jack H. Harris, Rupert Harvey, Elliott Kastner / D: Chuck Russell / W: Chuck Russell, Frank Darabont / C: Mark Irwin / E: Tod Feuerman, Terry Stokes / M: Michael Hoenig / S: Shawnee Smith, Kevin Dillon, Donovan Leitch, Jeffrey DeMunn, Candy Clark