The Blob (1988)

THE BLOB (1988)

dir: Chuck Russell

8/31 #31daysofhorror

A remake of a cheesy 1958 film about a gelatinous substance from space hellbent on covering the Earth. The '58 film became a cult classic, which can also be said about the 1987 version. Where audiences would laugh at the original, the remake would be rewarded for its excellence in gooey effects work. The two films are products of their respective times. As we saw fears of the unknown shown via aliens, robots, enlarged bugs, and radiation or the red scare in 1950's horror and sci-fi, the 1980's turns that fear on ourselves. The Blob in 1987 was created as a biological weapon created by a secret government agency. Because of course it was.

Let's get some background. There are several high-profile names attached to The Blob. First, if we look at the script we see Frank Darabont, who will go on to direct The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Green Mile (1999), The Mist (2007), and showrunner on The Walking Dead. Before Darabont's rise to fame he was a production assistant on Hell Night (1981). Here he met one of the film's producers Chuck Russell. We'll get to that soon, but first, Darabont directed a short film. The film was a Dollar Baby, one of the first. This means that Stephen King grants permission or rights to students, amateur filmmakers, or theaters to adapt a short story for $1.00. Darabont made “The Woman In The Room” which was a finalist for short film nominations for the 1983 academy awards. This was the beginning to a long relationship with Stephen King's works. Back to Chuck Russell. Darabont and Russell wrote A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) with Wes Craven. Russell directed Dream Warriors and with its success, the studios gave him the greenlight to go ahead with The Blob.

A word about the film's amazing effects. Essentially the Blob is a series of silk bags filled with a food thickening agent. On set, they called it a "Blob Quilt." This was attributed to the brilliance of Tony Gardner. Gardner designed the effects for the film, of which there are plenty. His first break was working for Rick Baker on John Landis' "Thriller" music video. While he was originally only one of many on the effects team of The Blob, problems on set led to him leading the whole team. While Gardner went on as an effects artist on Darkman (1990), Addams Family (1991), Army of Darkness (1992,) Seed of Chucky (2005), Zombieland (2009), and 127 Hours (2010), it was his work on Three Kings (1999) that led to his infamy. In Three Kings there is a scene where a bullet travels through a soldier's body. It was originally believed that bullets had been fired through a human cadaver. Furthermore, it was believed that the cadaver was a homeless person from Phoenix, AZ. You would think this is a crazy claim; however, Three Kings was also noted for gaining the sound effects of bullets ripping flesh by firing into cadaver donated to the production. And further to Gardner's career, this wasn't the first time he was investigated by the FBI in connection with the effects he created.

The effects are without a doubt fantastic in The Blob. It is why we come back to it again and again. The effects make Kevin Dillon tolerable to watch. I've always loved the slasher film within the film. Because of the original, we always knew there'd have to be a theater sequence, and Russell seems to focus a lot of effort in outdoing the original. Which he does. Even the jokes land well. When Scott is buying condoms at the pharmacy and runs into Reverend Meeker, he lies and tells the pharmacist and the reverend that the rubbers are for his friend Paul who's meeting a real easy girl tonight. And the punchline comes a scene later when Paul has to meet his date's father... the pharmacist. This joke, like the whole film, holds up. We revisit this film every year.