The Blob (1988)

Directed by Chuck Russell

Produced by Jack H. Harris & Elliot Kastner

Starring Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, Joe Seneca, Jeffrey DeMunn, Candy Clark, Art LaFleur, Paul McCrane, Del Close, Donovan Leitch

The Blob (1988)

It seems like only yesterday that Chuck Russell's remake of Irvin Yeaworth's 1958 cult classic was announced, and the hottest item of speculation around its production was who would be filling Steve McQueen's shoes! Russell seemed like an inspired choice of director, having just helmed "A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" (1987), and some young guy by the name of Tony Gardner (who most of us had never heard of at that stage of the game) was handling the makeup effects. It sounded like a real Blob for the eighties, but boy did it take me by surprise when it eventually opened! As a kid of twenty it positively scared me silly, and ushered in makeup effects the likes of which I had never seen before. Of course now, in the era of CGI overload, the blob effects tend to look somewhat dated but as a nostalgia piece it holds its own capably against the original. And now it's back in a cool new DVD from Columbia!

Arborville is the sleepy mid-Western small-town of American cinema folklore. However, one evening that sleepy persona is given the almighty wake-up when a fiery meteorite crashes to earth, coming to rest in the woods on the outskirts of town. The crash-landing's only elderly witness is attacked by a strange viscous substance when he noses too near the smoking crater. High school sweethearts Meg Penny (Smith) and Paul Taylor (Leitch) rescue the ailing gent, rushing him to the local hospital where he is placed under immediate observation. Once the old man collapses under the appetite of the parasitic being that has attached itself to him, the organism quickly makes a meal of poor Paul, then escapes in a search for more tasty human snacks. As the night progresses, and the Blob consumes more and more of the townsfolk, it might just become to task of street-wise motorcycle kid Brian Flagg (Dillon), and cheerleader Meg to save the day.

Keeping it concise, Chuck Russell sure knew how to put together a tightly-paced, action-packed horror flick! "The Blob" fairly zips along through its relatively brief 94 minutes with gusto, swiftly establishing its characters, then getting down to the business of messily killing them off with gleeful abandon. Smith makes for a terribly cute heroine (though she looks frighteningly young here these days), and Dillon fills the Steve McQueen role more capably than you would imagine. The real star of the show though is Lyle Conway and Tony Gardner's stunning array of visual and make-up effects, that Russell affords an amazing amount of screen-time. The producer's vision of a "vampire stomach" is perfectly realised on-screen, and Gardner's blob victims are some of the most grotesquely disgusting creations yet seen in a lower classification feature film. Russell & Frank Darabont's script plays with referencing the original, then snakes off on a tangent all its own, throwing in a few surprises along the way. Happily, neither of the writers forget that they are making a horror film, filling the proceedings just enough menace and obligatory scares to keep you on the edge of your seat. And just in case you forgot it was a product of the eighties, Swedish hard-rockers Alien pitch in with songs "Brave New Love" and "Feel My Love".

In short, Columbia's DVD of "The Blob" presents it in the best looking incarnation you are likely to see. After years of watching this in its Pan & Scan VHS variant, it was quite the delight to see it letterboxed and anamorphically enhanced. The film betrays its eighties origins on a number of occasions, displaying marginal film grain and compromising the limitations of the photographic matte work, but Columbia have afforded it a superlative transfer by anybody's standards. Audio is presented in Dolby 2.0 surround, but I'm hedging my bets on the limitations of the original theatrical Ultra-stereo ® mix being behind the lack of a new 5.1 remix. However, that said, it services the original mix quite well for the home. Anyway, who wouldn't get a kick out of hearing eighties cock-rockers Alien in surround? That's a thrill that would only be topped by hearing Swedish Glam-metal band Easy Action arcing up their "Blood Tracks" theme song in surround, but I'm sure the day will come…J

Unfortunately, the only Extra you get with the disc is the original theatrical trailer, which is pleasing enough by its inclusion. At face value, "The Blob" is still a lot of fun, and film you won't have to exercise too many brain-cells over to get a lot of enjoyment out of. Once the titular creature is loose, the attacks come thick and fast, culminating in an entertainingly cheesy showdown in the main street of Arborville, piling on some gorily gooey demises in the process. Maybe anyone contemplating a big budget remake of a cult classic in the near future had best take a gander at Russell's film, as it definitely the best template of how to do it right.

International specifications: PAL format disc; Language options in English, French, German, Italian & Spanish Dolby 2.0 surround; Subtitle options in English, Greek, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Hindi, Arabic, Icelandic & Hebrew

Review by Mike Thomason


 
Released by Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment
Classified M (15+) - Region 4 (PAL)
Running time - 94m
Ratio - Widescreen 1.85 (Anamorphic)
Audio - Dolby surround 2.0
Extras :
Theatrical trailer

© 2001, Icon In Black Media

Back