The Blob Review (1988) Worth Watching?

A deadly entity from space crashes near a small town and begins consuming everyone in its path. Panic ensues as shady government scientists try to contain the horrific creature.

The Blob was directed by Chuck Russell (known for A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors) and stars Kevin Dillon (from Compulsion), Shawnee Smith (from the Saw franchise), Donovan Leitch, Jeffrey DeMunn (from The Mist and The Hitcher) and Candy Clark (from Cat’s Eye).

Scream now, while you can still breathe.

The Blob is a remake of the original film from 1958. The 80’s gave us some of the greatest horror films and a good number of these were all remakes of horrors filmed in the 50’s. First that come to mind are Cronenberg’s The Fly and of course John Carpenter’s The Thing. Coincidence or not all of these are creature features and, in The Blob, the plot revolves around an entity that assimilates organic matter that it comes in contact with (except for plant life).

As with most of the films that have remakes, this film divides horror fans into several groups. There are those who love the original and fail to see any good in the remake, others who believe the 50’s version is old and boring and finally those who love both. High score goes to the original, for the classic style and the general approach to the horror genre. My thoughts for the 1958 version would be similar to the words of a well known Cybernetic Organism from the future (living tissue over metal endoskeleton): “Old, not obsolete!”.

Still, if I had to pick my favorite, it is definitely the 1988 remake. The reason for this could be part nostalgia since I watched similar horrors as a kid and loved these special effects. There are some great scenes when the Blob goes on rampage and starts dissolving people. Other reasons are solid acting, dreadful atmosphere and the fact that film makers were not afraid to sacrifice kids in order to show us a more realistic approach to horror. A here and there campy dialogue does not hurt the film and there is even a chance it will get you more invested into the characters.

It does start a bit slow, uses a formula that has been copied multiple times in the film industry, but once things start heating up, our protagonists will need to figure out how to save themselves from the ever-growing threat of the Blob. As for what the Blob really is, without going spoiler mode, let’s just say a meteor falls down to Earth near Arborville, California. An old drifter goes in to explore the crash site and stumbles upon a small alien-looking oozing slime that sticks to his arm. No need to say more, we all know where things go from there.

It has a classic 80’s horror ending done right. Horror films from this era either had a cliffhanger ending or an ambiguous one. With a few twists and turns well placed throughout the movie, fans of creature features will have a fun time watching this one.