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Director
Chuck RussellShawnee Smith - Megan "Meg" Penny
Kevin Dillon - Brian Flagg
Donovan Leitch - Paul Taylor
Jeffrey DeMunn - Sheriff Herb Geller
Del Close - Rev. Meeker
Candy Clark - Fran Hewitt
Beau Billingslea - Moss Woodley
I love it when a sequel or remake is as good, or better, as the original.
Such is the case for the 1988 creature feature of all creature features (the ones that aren't "Alien" or "Jaws" or "Jurassic Park" or "Godzilla"), "The Blob."
How ridiculous it is that the creature in the feature is a big glop of man-eating goo. The more it eats, the bigger it gets. And yet, the movie still taps into the realm of fear and gag reflexes. It turns a mass of goo into a shapeless mass of unstoppable dread and cold, slithering death.
The 1988 movie is a remake of the 1958 sci-fi horror flick of the same name, starring none other than Steve McQueen. I have an old copy of the '58 "Blob" on VHS. It's a campy movie, but it's still a certified classic.
The 1988 remake, directed by Chuck Russell, takes the premise of the 1958 classic and sharpens up the gore, fear, performances, and effects (even for 1988) while eating away the general campiness. It's a well-made and well-performed update.
In this movie, just like in the original, a meteor crash-lands in the fictional town of Arborville, California. It's nowhere near the strangest thing to happen in California.
Anyways, some transient bum is the first to discover the meteor. As he studies it, a gelatinous entity spews out and attaches itself to the guy's arm.
He screams in terror and pain dashing all hope of getting rich off of the meteor he found.
Local teens, Brian (Kevin Dillon), Meg (Shawnee Smith) and Paul (Donovan Leitch) find this guy and take him to the hospital.
While they're at the hospital, which doesn't seem to be all that active, Paul and the doctor check on the homeless guy and find that this blob has eaten most of him from the inside out.
The blob manages to escape the hospital, but not before dropping from the ceiling onto Paul and eating him in one terribly gruesome scene.
The blob crawls around town permeating in every crack and crevasse, eating whoever is within reach.
The military gets involved; Meg and Brian find out that this thing isn't from outer space. It's actually the result of a failed government experiment. So, the government did what it does best and hid their mistake by launching it into space. 
Well, it found its way back. And now the military tries to contain and destroy the blob and make sure none of the locals leave town. Everyone and everything must be contained.
Meanwhile, the blob continues eating victim after helpless victim. No one is safe! The military is also willing to permit casualties in order to stop this blob.
Like "Day of the Dead," "The Blob" is another horror flick I recall seeing at an age I probably shouldn't have thanks to some older brothers of mine. I particularly remember the scene where the blob pulls a guy down the sink drain at a diner. Gross!
The '88 Blob is one of those instances where the sequel or remake is as good or better than the previous. It updates the story of the original blob amazingly well. The previous, though again a true classic in the truest meaning of the word, is a dated movie.
The remake respects the original story and gives it some respectable updates. Plus, it turns on the gross blobby horror wonderfully. As far as creature features go, this is one of the best.
The scene in which the blob attacks the movie theater as theater-going patrons run out in terror, is a legendary horror movie moment. Also, the way the blob is defeated is pulled out of the original movie.
When no one is safe from a monster, then no one should be safe. Men, women, and children. No one! That's true in this movie. The blob traps a poor helpless waitress in a phone booth and also grabs and swallows a kid trying to escape. A monster is a monster. The more of a threat it poses on even the most innocent of victims, the worse the monster is. And the more satisfying it is to see it defeated. Sorry to see you go, kid.
The title, as satirical as it sounds, might lead first time viewers to think the movie is another off-the-wall festival of campiness.
The '58 "Blob" has more of a typical atomic age thriller sci-fi and teen melodrama to it.
The remake of "The Blob" certainly moves faster than its '58 counterpart. It doesn't use the blob as a means towards one big climatic confrontation at the end. This thing thrashes, rips. tears and devours throughout. By the end, all that's left to do is figure out how to kill it.
Plus, the '88 pours more horror into the story's sci-fi foundation.
The teen melodrama is replaced with tension and gore plus some cynical humor surrounding government deception and corruption.
Where the main character in the original, Steve Andrews (Steve McQueen) comes across as more passive than anything else, Megan is much more active in this version. She becomes the main protagonist after the hero "Brian" is devoured by the blob.
The storyline for the '58 blob is rooted in the Cold War era as that's when the movie was made. The blob is an outside threat. Not even small-town America is safe. There's definitely a Cold War vibe in the first film.
However, in the remake, the blob is an unfortunate man-made secret government bioweapon gone wrong. Now the government is trying to cover it up and pretend it didn't happen. It's not alien. It's a disgusting by-product of corruption and governmental decay. In true 1980s horror fashion, the movie has a subtle hint of social satire.
It's worth mentioning Chuck Russell's directorial debut was "A Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors" which is pretty much the only decent and most frightening Elm Street sequel. That is, it has the most terrifying scenes and atmosphere outside of the first movie. It's good for a sequel.
Russell also sat in the director's chair for "The Mask" (1994) with Jim Carrey, and "Eraser" (1996), He's good at creating intense images in his movies, especially when it comes to horror.
It's also worth noting that movie director Frank Durabont wrote the screenplay for "The Blob." That's a plus for me.
Durabont directed some note-worthy movies such as "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile," and "The Mist," all based on works by horror writer Stephen King. He also wrote the screen play for the aforementioned "A Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors," and the not-so-terrific "The Fly II."
Durabont was executive producer for the first season and part of the second season of the AMC series, "The Walking Dead." Lastly, he directed two episodes in the most recent fifth season of "Stranger Things." So, he has a respectable resume for sure.
The following year after the movie' release, the blob would make an uncredited cameo in "Ghostbusters II" as footage from "The Blob" remake was used in the movie. "Ghostbusters II" centers on the evil acts of New Yorkers turning into pink slime accumulating underneath New York City. Shots from "The Blob" were recycled for the Ghostbusters sequel.
"Ghostbusters II" even has a scene with movie-goers running out of a theater in terror as pink slime resembling the blob drips from the theater marquee. It's a clear homage to the '58 movie.
The visual effects in "The Blob" are amazingly horrific and memorable, and it maintains that classic creature feature atmosphere amidst the modern (well, 1980s modern) setting.
Some scenes definitely have staying power with audiences and pop culture, especially the scene where the blob eats Paul.
It doesn't take anything away from the original movie. It does bring it up to date while respecting the source material and making the IP popular again.
The blob is a creature/monster that deserves a high standing pedestal among other creatures of creature features. It's a simple blob that manages to strike a threatening feeling. No matter where someone hides, the blob can easily get in through cracks and crevasses to absorb its victim. And once it has a victim, nothing can save them.
It's a remake that's a lot darker and more suspenseful than before.
I'd be interested to see what another remake would do with the blob. However, I don't think the storyline would appeal to today's younger audiences like "The Blob" may have in 1988.
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