The Blob

More an homage than a direct remake, Chuck Russell’s The Blob is distinctly ’80s but with a ’50s soul. The 1958 original is straight sci-fi schlock—a staple of its time—that became a surprise drive-in success, and remains a camp classic to this day, notable for giving Steve McQueen his first leading role. The 1988 version, while retaining the earlier movie’s sci-fi sensibilities, upgrades the story to a creature-feature/body-horror mix with slasher touches. But despite its great sense of humor and killer practical effects—and you’ve gotta love those magical-’80s opening credits illuminated by a purply glow—it wasn’t as profitable. Russell reckons it’s the jokey side that made the film less commercially viable, but that’s part of what makes it work so well.

Responsible for the spirited script are Russell and his co-screenwriter Frank Darabont, who, a year earlier, had collaborated on A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, which possesses its own darkly comic streak. That film is the best entry in the franchise after the first, and The Blob the rare remake that outdoes its original.

Shawnee Smith, who later became a horror icon in the Saw series, stars as adorable (and smart!) high-school cheerleader Meg, who, early in the film, goes on the worst-ever first—and emphatically last—date with cute football star Paul (Donovan Leitch). Before the evening has even gotten started, they hit a guy with his car and rush him to the hospital, where Paul ends up enveloped by the oozy mass that was mysteriously attached to the victim’s hand. Then, when trying to help, Meg pulls her date’s arm clean off before he perishes in a bloody, melty mess. When nobody believes her about the deadly creature—more pink slime than the red jelly of the original—she seeks support from the resident bad boy, Brian (a strangely likable Kevin Dillon, who never really lived up to the leading-man promise displayed here), a witness to the car accident. They are now in this chaos together, as more and more people in their small California town are ingested (and the entity grows larger with each body consumed). Brian, of course, will step in as the new love interest, too.

This Blob has a much higher death count than the original, and some of the killings are downright sensational. One particularly satisfying scene sees the demise of Paul’s date-rapey friend, equipped with a full bar setup in his trunk and Binaca breath spray (remember those?), when the slime creature emerges from his (dead) date’s cleavage (the Blob has tentacles here!). And no one could forget the showstopping clogged-sink scene in which a dishwasher at the local diner sticks his hand down a drain, and the Blob pulls his entire body in—or the thrilling set pieces in a movie palace (to recall the original’s theater carnage) and a phone booth, which disposes of the diner’s owner (Candy Clark).

The appeal of the Blob is perennial, and another reboot has naturally been under consideration for decades. Both Rob Zombie and Simon West were once attached to the project, and the latest director on board is David Bruckner, who contributed standout segments to the omnibuses V/H/S (2012) and Southbound (2015) but didn’t have much to offer in reimagining Hellraiser (2022). To adapt to the latest terms of our terrible times, the creature will reportedly not be an alien arrived on earth via a meteorite or a Cold War weapon mutation (a twist in the 1988 film), but something involving AI and gene editing gone horribly wrong.