The ’80s was a very great decade for horror movies. After the foggy and gritty ’70s, the ’80s became a time for reinvention, one that saw a proliferation of all types of horror films. From slashers like My Bloody Valentine to body-horror like The Fly and Re-Animator, the ’80s had it all kicked up to 11. One of the very best horror films of the decade was The Blob, a remake of the 1958 classic starring a young Kevin Dillon and Shawnee Smith. It centered around the titular blob, a parasitic gelatinous entity that consumes and dissects everything it touches, gaining strength in the process; if it continues to eat it will reach a point where no kind of weapon can kill it, and it is up to our protagonists to find a way to stop it. Though it failed to make a net profit when released in 1988, it has since gathered a cult following, and is now evaluated as one of the best horror remakes ever and one of the best horror films of the ’80s.
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Upping the Antic
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For much the same reason other remakes were being made at the time, The Blob’s premise and name recognition made it interesting enough for studio executives to green light in the hopes of capturing an intrigued audience. The old films were outdated and no longer scary or frightening to a new audience, relegated to movies only film buffs watch. Executives were hoping to recapture the public interest with better effects, often translating to a refurbished experience, precisely what The Blob successfully achieved. It managed to keep the original’s tone and style while updating the effects and pushing them to the limit.
None of it would’ve been possible without the collaborative effort that is filmmaking, but the film’s screenwriter, Frank Darabont, director of classics like The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist, deserves a ton of praise for crafting a fantastic script that firmly established the world, plot, and beats of a well-paced movie. None of it would’ve been quite as affecting if it wasn’t for the solid foundation of the script. It presented a neat and pleasant little town and its many assortments of characters in rapid fashion all while the blob begins to gain strength and prepare its attack, culminating the introduction with the film’s first brutal kill, perfectly setting up its difference to the original and raising the stakes to level it wasn’t quite fate in the original.
Practical Effects
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One has to truly marvel at the practical effects of the ’80s. It was a period of consistent quality and innovation, and The Blob certainly belongs among the ranks of contributors. It’s right up there with other classic such as The Thing and An American Werewolf in London, using every trick in the gross-out book to illicit a reaction of gore and disgust to its audience. It works to a morbid charm in The Blob, where we are treated to a galore of blood and gore of overdrive proportion. The blob and his victims are presented in the most visceral way possible, oftentimes showing the decomposing process in all its unabashed disgust. It was able to capture the depravity and horror of what it would be like to be stuck in a situation like this, where every exit turns into an obstacle and there’s no way to get around it other than to kill your opponent. This is what was severely lacking in the original film, a sense of dread following every character as they slowly start to realize what is going on.
Higher Stakes
Through a more tense and grim atmosphere, The Blob remake separated itself from the original with tone and the presentation of the stakes. The deaths are graphic and bone chilling, made even more endearing thanks to the film’s excellent depiction of great personable characters. While Darabont and director Chuck Russell were able to keep the mood of the original before the blob is revealed to the entire town, it completely shifts into an action-horror thriller by the final act, with the blob an even more powerful and bigger threat than it ever was in the original. The military was no match for its strength, and they were quickly dispatched by the monster, but not before putting up a fight that saw everything from explosives, grenades, M16’s, and nitrogen. A fantastic set piece that still holds up despite some clunky miniature model effects, it was the perfect way to end the movie, even if you include the sequel bait at the very end which, while obviously never made, still gave it the proper Lovecraftian edge to the whole creation.
Distinctly ’80s
All these elements combined to form a part of the quintessential ’80s experience. The small town setting gave it the perfect vibe, as it is a staple of the ’80s and its stylistic tone. Practically every popular film was inundated with suburban settings and flashy bright colors. They were often juxtaposed to the grittier environments, often being contrasted as they are here, and A Nightmare on Elm Street with elements of the macabre and existential horror. The staple of the time was to create strong characters with few weaknesses that were nevertheless prevalent as obstacles in the story told and served as turning points in the whole adventure, all the way from Top Gun, Commando, and Predator.
The Blob was no exception to this; it took the best qualities and of those movies and incorporated it into the story, making it feel grounded in the meta-reality of the ’80s. One of the many vital aspects that makes a film work is the relation it crafts around the time it was made, what is says about that culture and what it adds to it, and if The Blob tells us anything about ’80s culture it’s that there was a lot of interest gore and grand finales. Such a reason will continue to make The Blob one of the best and most intriguing movies of the era.
