Sometimes movies, for one reason or another just fly very far underneath your radar for years and when you finally catch up to them it feels like a revelation and just don’t know why no one told you about this one in the first place. “The Blob” from 1988 is a remake no one necessarily asked for, but it ended up being so beloved that the new Blu-Ray reissue from Twilight Time Entertainment old out before it even got the chance to ship, and deservedly so with its above average cast for a horror movie this managed to capture the essence of the original while amping up the grossness to match the 80’s vibe that I can’t help but put forward.
It is the essence of small town America, where not much ever happens, even though all of that is about to change. A mysterious craft has crash landed in the woods, only to be discovered by the town tough guy Brian Flagg (Kevin Dillon) who no one believes. But they are in trouble, as a mysterious government agency comes to town on the hunt for whatever crashed. Little did they know that it would be an amorphous pile of goo and slime with a mind of its own that is hell bent on destroying anything that crosses it’s path.
This movie genuinely had no business being as good as it actually was, but “The Blob” was just the perfect storm of B-Movie filmmaking with all the right elements coming together in perfect harmony.
Director Chuck Russell on his second feature ever, is a serviceable hand who get the story going from point A to point B without too much muss and or fuss and never gets hung up on anything unnecessary along the way and doesn’t lean on effect shots too much giving it a similar vibe to the original from the 1950’s while amping up the gore just a teeny tiny bit. The script co-written by Russell and the great Frank Darabont hits the right notes as it knows where to go for a laugh and it knows where to be dead serious and it very much plays like an homage to middle America where this movie takes place because even though we know it is years and years later, these things could only ever genuinely happen in a place where time stands still. It’s a crazy ride and it’s supposed to be as the ensemble embraces the nature of the material and you can just tell how much fun that they are actually having.
Getting past the fact that Kevin Dillon as a leading man and tough young punk kid is a little bit forced even on a good day , it is still works as a fun piece of action horror that keeps us guessing from turn to turn. In what might have been her first leading role in a feature, Shawnee Smith was actually quite strong and showed her chops as a potential leading lady and scream queen as she effectively carried more of the movie then Dillon did. The rest of the ensemble was littered with familiar supporting players like Jeffery DeMunn, Paul McCrane, Candy Clark and Joe Seneca among others as we go along for this crazy ride.
Picture and sound quality are pretty solid and the special features include an isolated score track, a feature length audio commentary track from co-writer/director Chuck Russell and Horror Authority Ryan Turek, the original theatrical trailer and more.
To put it quite simply this release of “The Blob” was so popular that it sold out of its limited 5000 unit run before it even shipped and now there are only a scant few up for grabs on eBay at about $80 a shot, but for horror fans it just might be worth it as this is a piece of gold that deserves a place of honor in anyone’s collection.
4 out 5 stars.
“The Blob” was released by Twilight Time and many other selections in their catalog are available at the Screen Archives Entertainment website right here.
