They don’t make movies like they did with the 1988 horror cult-classic The Blob anymore, and I mean that literally. This remake of the 1958 movie of the same name about a gelatinous “blob” from outer space that eats things, mostly people, was created in a time when whatever special effects were needed to make the blob crawl or eat said humans had to be created using traditional means either on-set or via miniatures back int he studio, whereas nowadays most of that stuff’s made in a computer. Now there’s nothing wrong with computer generated effects, it’s just that since most special effects these days are made in a computer, and to a certain degree all the special effects companies are using the same programs, effects in movies these days can all start to feel the same.
And The Blob doesn’t “feel” like anything else.
Arborville, California is a typical ski-town in the fall where there are high school bad boys like Brian (Kevin Dillon), jocks like Paul (Donovan Leitch Jr.) and cheerleaders like Meg (Shawnee Smith) who’s typical day is obliterated when a meteor crashes outside of town and contains within a bubble gum colored “blob” from outer space. This thing starts out small but when an old prospector gets too close it latches onto his arm and starts eating him slowly from the fingers up. And every time the blob eats it gets bigger and bigger, to the point by the end of the movie it’s the size of an office building.
Which is pretty much the plot of the 1958 The Blob that’s most well-known these days for being Steve McQueen’s first leading role and little else. But where that version of the movie has a sort of dopey “golly-gee” 1950s innocence going for it, the 1988 version is anything but that.
Here, when the blob attacks it dissolves its prey alive as it consumes it. And because you can see within the blob since it’s semi-transparent… well, I’ll let your imagination paint the rest of that picture that’s too gory to be printed here. Because the special effects used in The Blob were done practically it adds a level of disturbing realism to the whole movie that tends to stick with viewers long after they’ve seen this one.
When I first started researching just how the special effects were done for The Blob I ran into a bit of trouble since there’s not a lot of behind the scenes information for it out there. Other than a few online tidbits I had problems finding anything of real substance other than a few pics from the making of the movie. So I went ahead and picked up an issue of Cinefex magazine from 1988 that covered The Blob.
That article revealed a movie in a bit of trouble, where the original company hired to deliver the creature effect couldn’t do it, and other companies had to be bought in after the movie had wrapped to bring the creature to life. Using a variety of techniques from silk “quilts” sewn together to form the outer shell then injected with goop and animated by puppeteers to miniatures and even full-sized blob pieces, the horror that is The Blob was eventually brought to life.
Directed by Chuck Russell and co-written by him and Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Walking Dead), the 1988 The Blob also has a healthy dose of 1980s paranoia going on with it too — it would make a perfect double feature with They Live, another one from 1988. Here, government scientists and military personnel are on-hand to try and corral the monster and give off a total “let the pros do their job” vibe to the movie. Not to spoil things, but these government officials don’t all have the citizens best interests in mind and are more concerned for catching the creature alive than actually saving the good people of Arborville.
If you’re into horror movies where there are real stakes, gore and genuine frights then The Blob might just be for you. If you’re more into movies about haunted dolls being conjured by possessed demon-nuns, you might want to look elsewhere for your horror entertainment.
