The trailer. Enjoy all of the cheesetastic 80's mullets.
Anyway, it the spirit of full disclosure this is not the first time I have seen this film. I saw it when I was really little (hear this as 5 years old...and if you wondered why I write horror now you know why. I was corrupted ever so lovingly by my mother to adore all things that go bump in the night). My mom was a huge monster buff and if it had monsters in it then I saw it with her. So yeah, I haven't seen this movie in ages. In fact, I barely remember it. Which is weird because there are some of the most epic mullets I have ever seen in my life in this film. You would think that sort of hair travesty would stay with you...but it appears that I blocked it out...perhaps as a form of self-protection from bad hair choices.
The first thing I want to talk about this film is how sexist it really is but how under the radar it tries to be about it. The first instance is when the main female character Meg gets knocked out. I mean she literally gets bumped into a wall and gets knocked out. I'm calling BS on that. I hit a dashboard at 50 miles an hour, sustained a fracture to the skull, and frontal lobe damage, but I never lost consciousness for one moment. So yeah I found this offensive that as a girl she's deemed to be so dainty (hear this as useless and ineffective) that a simple bump to the back of her head can knock her out. They may as well have had her swoon and pass out Victorian style. Then there is the implied pending date rape...I mean that one speaks for itself and Mr. 'I have a blender in my trunk, please have a roofy-colada,' deserves every bit of what he got and more. Third why when during the scene in the sewer does the blob look like a deformed cervix (see what that looks like here)? I mean I shouldn't have to say that that is symbolic of women eating people. This whole movie really chapped my ass, that it seemed so anti-female. I left this film thinking that someone had some serious issues with women. And it really put me off.
As far as the special effects go, I feel like I had seen them all before. If you have ever seen Creepshow (1982) and Creepshow 2 (1987) you know what I am talking about. The scene with the homeless man poking the blob with a stick smacked of the scene in Creepshow titled, 'The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill.' I half expected the homeless man to say "I got meteor shit on me." It became funny rather than scary. Then there was the scene after the afore mention date rape scene that is directly ripped from Creepshow 2, titled, 'The Raft,' where an unsuspecting girl is also killed in a very similar manner. Nothing really seemed all that different than what had already been done. I was meh, about the efforts to make this unique. Also, if you haven't seen either Creepshow or Creepshow 2 I highly recommend that you do.
I also thought this movie felt very dated in how the government/scientists are portrayed. I felt very 80's to me where government = bad. I'm not saying that's not true now...I'm just saying that in 80's films it seems to scream that equation a lot louder. And g it also got used as a scapegoat more frequently in 80's films than in other decades.
I did however like the in movie satire about the Friday the 13th style movie. I like that it parodied the movie in this movie. I like that it wasn;t afraid to lampoon its own genre. That took balls so good on them. I also liked the addition of the harbinger character in the priest. I think you can't really have a good horror movie without a harbinger of doom. And you can't go wrong with the crazy priest or religious figure as your harbinger.
Overall, I didn't hate this film...but I wouldn't watch it again. I may give the next remake a whirl..hoping that it will not be so dated and sexist...but I will not be watching this one again. It's not the worst movie I have sat through. But, it definitely be the last time I watch this version of the film.
Works Cited
The Blob. Dir. Chuck Russell. Perf. Kevin Dillon & Shawnee Smith. DVD. 1988
Creepshow. Dir. George A. Romero. Perf. Leslie Neilson & Ed Harris. DVD. 1982
Creepshow 2. Dir. Michael Gornick. Perf. Tom Savini & George Kennedy. DVD. 1987
