The Blob (1988)

--Reviewed by Lindy Loo

Plotline: A remake of the 1958 Steve McQueen film--an asteroid falls to the earth, leaving a cocoon-like object in its wake. After a homeless man pokes at it and releases a blob-like material from within it, it begins to quickly consume him, and then other townsfolk one by one. The more it consumes, the larger and more blobbier it gets. The teenagers in the town attempt to warn folks and figure out how to kill it while government agents (interested in using it for biological warfare--a change from the 1958 version) attempt to quarantine the town and get their hands on it, risking townsfolks' lives in the process.

Scariness factor: It's a big fat pink blob that sometimes looks like bubblegum and other times looks like pre-chewed laughy taffy--how scary can it really be?

Originality: No more original than other sci-fi/horror flicks that play up people's fears of alien beings.

Complaints: As in the original, there are quite a few really ridiculous shots of the blob--sometimes it looks even LAMER than the original, which is impressive. Also, the main character has the worst '80's Richard Marx mullet, and you're gonna get stuck staring at it through a good portion of the movie--that actually is one of the more terrifying aspects of the film.

Other High Points: The blob death-scenes--surprisingly, many of these were quite gruesome and inventive, despite the many other times that the blob ends up looking lame in the movie. One man gets sucked down into a sink drain, a waitress gets exploded within a telephone booth, a teenager gets quickly consumed and is shown screaming and trying to escape the interior of the blob as it consumes him. Fun fun stuff. Kinda had the same campy gruesomeness of Dead Alive. Also, for those of you who are Seinfeld fans, Crazy Joe Divola makes about a 5-second screen appearance in the movie, to my great amusement.

Overall: I was surprised and actually quite enjoyed this movie. It doesn't take itself too seriously--thank god, because it's really damn terrible at times. It has a good amount of camp-factor in it--it would be fun to watch with a group of drunk folks. And the death-scenes were surprisingly creepy. As B-movies go, it was actually quite a bit of fun to watch.

Grade: B