The Blob (1988 film)

Infobox Film
name = The Blob

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caption = Promotional film poster
director = Chuck Russell
producer = Jack H. Harris
Elliott Kastner
writer = Irving H. Millgate (story)
Theodore Simonson and
Kay Linaker (1958 screenplay)
Chuck Russell &
Frank Darabont (screenplay)
narrator =
starring = Kevin Dillon
Shawnee Smith
Donovan Leitch
Jeffrey DeMunn
Candy Clark
Joe Seneca
music = Michael Hoenig
cinematography = Mark Irwin
editing = Tod Feuerman
Terry Stokes
distributor = TriStar Pictures
released = August 5, 1988 (USA)
runtime = 95 min.
country = U.S.
language = English
budget = $9,000,000 (estimated)
gross = $8,247,943 (USA)
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:6069
imdb_id = 0094761

"The Blob" is a 1988 monster horror film distributed by Tristar Pictures. It is a remake of the 1958 film of the same name, which starred Steve McQueen. Directed by Chuck Russell. Screenplay by Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont. 95 minutes, rated R. The film was shot in Abbeville, Louisiana.

Plot

A small meteorite falls to earth near the town of Arborville, Colorado. An elderly transient discovers, within the hollow sphere, a bizarre, jelly-like substance (the Blob) which attaches itself to his hand. Three high-schoolers, punk Brian Flagg (Dillon), cheerleader Meg Penny (Smith) and her footballer-date Paul (Leitch) encounter the fleeing man and take him to a local hospital. After Brian leaves, Paul witnesses the transient and a doctor being melted down from physical encounters with this substance. As he calls for help (in an office), he looks up only to see the blob suddenly drop down, right on top of him. Meg comes running in to see Paul completely covered, all of him being consumed by the now ever-growing Blob which (after discarding a limb) then oozes out of the hospital and enters the town sewer system.

After both Brian and Meg have unsatisfactory encounters with the police, they meet in the town diner where she tells him about the Blob. His disbelief is shattered when they see the diner's handyman sucked (face first) down a sink-drain by the Blob. It chases them into the diner's walk-in freezer where, for some reason, it retreats. After eating the diner's owner (by trapping then crushing her in a phone box) and the town's sheriff, the organism reenters the sewers.

Meg and Brian go to the police station, where the dispatcher tells them deputy Briggs (McCrane) is near the meteor-landing site. They go and discover a military operation led by a scientist, Dr. Meddows (Seneca), who orders the town placed under quarantine. Brian escapes from a military van and goes to collect his motorbike.

Meg is taken back to town where she learns her little brother Kevin (Kenworthy) is missing. Meg finds him and his friend Eddie (Emerson) having snuck into the local theatre to see a slasher movie thanks to Ed's usher brother Antony (Newlander). She rescues the two from amidst a blob rampage as it consumes both staff and visitors alike.

After picking up his bike, Brian eavesdrops on the ecstatic Meddows to his p.a Jennings (Axelrod) and learns that the creature is a biological warfare experiment gone wrong. He also learns from Antony, that Meg Kevin and Eddie are in the sewers and Meddows is secretly willing to let them die to contain the creature. Brian is discovered listening in and evades military personel by driving his motorcycle into the sewer system.

Down below, Meg, Kevin, and a hysterical Eddie are still fleeing from the monster as it devours sewer rats whilst pursing them through the waist deep water. Kevin escapes to the surface by scaling a pipe and squeezng through a grate while Eddie is seized, pulled back and under. Meg dives back into the water to pull him free, only to find him partially covered by the blob as it tears him from her grasp, to be devoured. Meg is subsequently saved by Brian, who confronts Meddows (who'd tried to entrap them below ground) in front of the townsfolk and Briggs. The scientist (failing to convince everyone, he's contaminated and must die) attempts to shoot Brian, but the Blob snatches Meddows (who fires wildly into the air) and drags him back down a manhole to his death (flooding his suit in the process). The remaining soldiers now led by Col. Hargis (Rader) throw an explosive charge down into the sewer; but this does nothing more than anger the creature, which bursts onto the surface, landing on top of Rader (who fails to further blow it up) before proceeding to squash and feast upon the assembled population. In the ensuring panic, the town's Reverend Meeker (Close) is proclaiming the scene to be the prophesied end of the world, when a failed flamethrower attack on the Blob sets him ablaze. Meg saves him with a fire extinguisher, and in the process blasts the Blob with it. The thing backs off, and she realizes why it couldn't come into the freezer: it can't stand cold.

The surviving humans retreat to town hall and hold the Blob at bay with furniture-barricades and fire extinguishers, but it is a losing battle; Briggs is among the casualties as the blob bursts in, folding him in half as it drags him outside. Brian goes to the town's garage and gets a snow maker truck that has two canisters of liquid nitrogen attached to it. He drives to town hall and shoots snow at the creature, but it knocks the truck over. After helping Brian get clear, Meg takes an explosive charge from a dead soldier and blows up the canisters, covering the Blob with the liquid nitrogen. Brian, Meg and then Kevin look on as the creature seems to wail as it is flash-frozen shattering into a exploding mass of crystallized pieces which are scattered across the streets, admist a mushroom cloud of howling winds. Moss Woodley (Billingslea) has it's frozen remains hauled away by dump truck to the town icehouse as Meg embraces both her brother and Brian each one covered in frost.

The film cuts to a tent-meeting in a field, where Meeker, disfigured by his burn injures, (notably surrounding his right eye) and is now crazed, preaching a doomsday sermon to an enthralled congregation. Asked when the time of reckoning will come, he replies "Soon...Maam...soon...when the lord gives me a sign!" and holds up a glass jar containing a fragment of the Blob, that is steadily moving.

Taglines

*"If it had a mind, you could reason with it. If it had a face, you could look it in the eye. And if it had a body, you could shoot it...Terror has no shape." (from theatrical trailer)
*"On his 30th birthday, he's back...Bigger, faster, hungrier, meaner and deadlier than before...Guess he'll have his cake and eat it too." (from the film's press kit)
*"Scream now while there is still room to breathe!" (from the DVD)

Cast

*Kevin Dillon...Brian Flagg
*Shawnee Smith...Meg Penny
*Donovan Leitch...Paul Taylor
*Jeffrey DeMunn...Herb Geller
*Candy Clark...Fran Hewitt
*Joe Seneca...Dr. Meddows
*Del Close...Reverend Meeker
*Paul McCrane...Deputy Bill Briggs
*Beau Billingslea...Moss Woodley
*Douglas Emerson...Eddie Beckner
*Jamison Newlander...Antony Beckner
*Art LaFleur...Mr. Penny
*Bill Moseley...Soldier
*Erika Eleniak...Vicki De Soto
*Robert Axelrod...Jennings
*Ricky Paull Goldin...Scott Jeske
*Frank Collison...Hobbe
*Michael Kenworthy...Kevin Penny
*Jack Rader...Col. Hargis

Reception

Generally, this film has received many mixed reviews. Most are negative comments merely from fans of the original film, due to the movie's changes, most notably being the Blob's new origin as a government experiment gone horribly wrong, and not just a monster from outer space. The film was also criticized for all the sub-plots introduced into it, such as the government's involvement and other notable examples. It was also argued that the new Blob bore little resemblance to the original monster. All negative comments aside, the movie has received many good reviews, due to its gore, action sequences, plot and special effects.

Trivia

*Shawnee Smith (Meg Penny) was once asked whether the producers remembered to heat the sewer-water she had to wallow through while eluding the title aberration. With a grin, Smith answered, "Well, they "tried."
*Ten years after this movie's release, it was "homaged" (read: lampooned) on "The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show". Keenen treated guest Shawnee Smith to a short parody-film he had made for her: "The Fro". It dealt with a huge, carnivorous sentient Afro-wig that is finally incapacitated when Keenen's character (clearly filling Meg Penny's shoes) douses it with Jheri curl. Smith was delighted by all of this.

External links

*imdb title|id=0094761|title=The Blob
*rotten-tomatoes|id=1002585|title=The Blob
*mojo title|id=blob|title=The Blob
*amg title|id=1:6069|title=The Blob