As usual, October has zipped on by and we’re heading straight into Turkey Trots, pie-baking competitions, and having to talk to people who start listening to Christmas music too early. But before we say goodbye to the spookiest month of the year, I get to leave you with one more Halloween edition of The 90-Minute Movie. Today is all about 1988’s exceptional remake of The Blob. I have grown very fond of this movie over the last few years and I consider the script often when I am writing. The Blob is one of those rare remakes that is better than the original. So if you’ve seen the 1958 version, but not this one, don’t skip this plot breakdown because it switches a lot up. And as always, spoilers will follow.
The people of a small ski town eagerly await the coming of winter to bring in tourist business to their slowing economy. On a particularly balmy October night, high school students Brian (Kevin Dillon), Meg (Shawnee Smith), and Paul (Donovon Leitch) discover a corrosive, jelly-like substance that has fallen from the sky in a meteor and injured a man in the woods. Soon enough, the blob rapidly grows in size as it absorbs members of the town. When it is revealed that the blob isn’t an alien substance and instead manmade, it’s up to the teens to save their town from not only the blob but a strange government group sent in to contain it.
The filmmakers made three deliberate choices when writing and shooting this movie that make it so successful. They chose a “Final Girl”-type character for their lead rather than a man (in the original it was Steve McQueen), they make the blob corrosive (like an “inside-out stomach” as noted in the commentary), and they chose to add a secondary threat with the government officials and military men who show up to supposedly fix the situation. I think most remakes flop because they fail to successfully update the story for a new audience. Either they follow too closely to the original and thus lose any interest in the need for a remake, or they shove the idea that you’re watching a remake down your throat with easter eggs, pop songs, and other elements that distract from the actual meat of the story. The Blob strikes a nice balance because it updates the story subtly.
While typically “Final Girl” is used in reference to a slasher flick, I do think it can be applied to Smith as Meg here because of her level of autonomy and growth. Like most Final Girls, Meg is introduced as an innocent, virginal cheerleader. Her last name Penny suggests she’s “brand new”, after all. She has a good relationship with her parents and wears more than appropriate clothing for a date (the fashion and customing in the movie are appalling). She is pristine. In fact, after an outburst from Meg mid-way into the movie, Flagg says to her “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say shit before. How was that for you?” Her experience with the blob quickly makes its mark, washing away this put-together outer layer but leaving her moral compass in place. She’s still a “good girl” and wants to save her family. So while she is driven by traditional values, her means to maintain those values are anything but. And while Meg doesn’t face the monster on her own in the end, and has the help of Flagg, it is ultimately her determination, grit, and bravery that saves the town and her family.
What’s great about having two unlikely heroes in Meg and Flagg, is that the filmmakers are able to play with their contrasting values and viewpoints for the duration of the movie. Where Meg is a Conservative dream, Flagg is the opposite. A motorcycle riding rule breaker from a broken home. He doesn’t get much out of the systems of his small town and chooses not to participate. In fact, the movie opens showing him specifically as the only one his age not attending the football game at the high school. Instead, he opts to ride his motorcycle in the woods and drink cans of beer. He and Meg become partners solely because of timing. They wind up in the same place at the same time with the same problem-- the blob. And because Flagg witnesses the blob’s power too, Meg feels she can trust him, regardless of their differences. Meg spends the majority of the film convincing Flagg that the community is more important than the individual and that the townspeople are worth saving. It may seem odd to imagine now, but community was a core principle of Conservativism at the time. So she does uphold her original values.
Again I want to say that this is all done with subtlety. While Meg is championing the case for community, Flagg voices his distrust for authority figures and the government. The balance of the two is what ultimately brings them to victory over the blob. It’s messy and they argue, but they do finally trust and listen to one another in the end. This is another distinct choice of the filmmakers that updates this story not only to be more “of the time” but also to enrich the story. I think that’s the trick… finding ways to make the story more contemporary in ways that don’t distract and instead elevate it. They do this by throwing the additional curve ball that the blob isn’t just from outer space, but that it is manmade. Shot into space by the US government as a military experiment. The blob isn’t an alien, but instead a weapon to be used in war. When the government arrives, Flagg is immediately suspicious of them. Where Meg is predisposed to do what she’s told by authority figures, Flagg is not. This suspicion splits them for a short amount of time but is also what fuels Meg to take things into her own hands and find her brother.
Meg and Flagg’s opposing viewpoints eventually lead them to a resolution, both in their relationship and with the blob. That those two opposing viewpoints happen to mirror what was going on in 1988 politically, is a nice bonus. I want to wrap this up by bringing up the nature of the blob itself and the visual effects. Because while the narrative changes are excellent and elevate the remake high above the original, the effects deserve their own post. Oh great! Someone already did that for us. What makes the 1988 blob so special is its corrosive nature. Sure an all-consuming ball of goo rolling toward you is scary BUT being absorbed and consumed by the ball slowly with acid? That’s next-level horrific. The blob is the source of some painful deaths-- being sucked down a sink drain, being crushed in a phone booth, being pulled through the body of the girl you were trying to assault (Scott Jeske, I’ll never forgive you)-- but the most iconic death of all is one of the first. Paul getting slowly consumed by the blob in the hospital.
This image would go on to be the film poster and for good reason. The mechanics of the scene are incredible (give that article linked above a read and you’ll see) and the end result is one of the most visceral monster deaths I can remember. I think these days we are so used to the polished motion and feel of CGI that practical effects, when done well, can scare us more than anything else. This is like when Frank (my partner) and I watched 2012’s Jack Reacher and were so engrossed by the car chase scene. It was real cars! Real stunts! We couldn’t believe our eyes! After all the Marvel movies where physics really doesn’t matter (Doctor Strange I love you but JFC) practical effects are such a joy. I miss them. Can we petition to not only bring back the 90-minute movie but also the practical effects?! The blob grows at a rapid rate and can’t be destroyed by explosives or guns. It feels invincible until our heroes discover that--like most of us--it hates the cold.
I was introduced to this movie about five years ago and it has quickly become one of my favorite horror movies of all time. It is definitely my favorite monster movie. While I dissected it to bits here, it is actually a simple script that is well-executed. Again, again, again, I must remind myself to not overcomplicate my own writing. If you have a good story and tell it well, that’s all you need.
REFERENCES:
https://www.cbr.com/the-blob-remake-1988-underrated-horror/
https://filmschoolrejects.com/the-blob-special-effects/
https://www.horrorgeeklife.com/2020/08/05/the-blob-1988-is-one-of-the-best-horror-remakes-ever/
Honestly one of the best hidden gem movies on the 80s. It's crazy more people don't know about this one.