The Blob

I simply cannot believe this film was a flop back in the day. I found it languishing on late night tv as a youth & was a fan from the start. Even now almost 25 years on the special effects are great, by great I mean, they work. You don't roar with laughter at a supposedly scary scene that has aged really badly & is now funny cos it's so bad (like some early CGI now looks) I mean there are obviously a few aged ropey green screen scenes in there but it's an older film now. The film it's self gets going quite quick and we see this blob thing going on a gory kill fest and the special effects really do work well especially for 1988 & for once in a horror film don't think if you're a kid you're safe as unusually for a horror film a kid of about 12 gets it in this film & the don't spare us on the gore when he gets it either . It's a shame there is no Director's commentary on either the blu ray or the DVD but at least it's now available because for a long time it was deleated as they call it, or just bloody hard to find. Anyway anyone who is a horror fan & 80s horror fan especially should get this in their collection...it's brilliant!!

It has been a solid 20 years since I originally (and accidentally) caught my first viewing of The Blob 1988. It was being shown as a part of a horror marathon on television at the time and did a great job of satisfying my love for '80s horror flicks. But for whatever reason, I never did acquire a copy until I discovered that it had been released by Umbrella as a part of a bluray re-issue campaign. When I initially saw it, I bought it up immediately and didn't hesitate to put it on. Did the movie live up to the hype and nostalgia after not seeing it after all these years? You're damn right it did!The Blob is a pretty simple concept, like most '80s horror movies. The film takes place in a small charming town. We quickly get introduced to an array of interesting characters, all of them likeable in some way or another. Later on, a meteor crashes to the Earth and unleashes a large gooey beastie that quickly devours an old hermit. This sets up the movie for one of the best gory rampages of the time period as The Blob goes from building to building causing one great imaginative death to another.All the interesting characters make the movie very easy to get into. Each one has their own quirks and the way they interact with one another is quite smooth and believable. For an '80s horror movie, I think the acting itself is quite good. Each role is played convincingly and I enjoyed watching each character on screen. I wouldn't recommend getting too familiar with them however as this is one movie that leaves no character safe. The Blob is looking for some easy lunch and doesn't care who he has to devour to achieve his goal. The film does a great job of subverting your expectations and is a great example of how to do so. The people behind the recent awful Star Wars movies could learn a whole lot from The Blob.The highlight of the movie is of course the visual effects, which for the most part are absolutely stunning. The Blob itself is quite disgusting to look at and comes across as a big sentient tumour. It is quite revolting and was very well handled by the creative team behind it. The death scenes of course are spectacular. Fans of the horror classics The Thing and The Fly will be right at home here. The visual style of the special effects are quite similar in that each corpse looks juicy, squishy and explodes, implodes and dissolves with great effect. It is safe to say that this is not a movie for the faint of heart.One thing I love about this film is the pacing. The Blob is an easy going ninety five minutes long but it really does not feel it. The movie jumps from one gross out scene to another with no holding back and this creates some excellent pacing. With the added humour and fun characters, it makes the movie a very easy watch. I am not one to shy away from long drawn out epics, but it is always great to get a film that doesn't horse around and this is one of those. It does what it does, does it quickly and gets it over with without over staying its welcome.The bluray quality for this Umbrella print is really good. You'll find the film grain found in a lot of '80s movies has been left intact. This means that the new high definition print looks really sharp and extremely clear in places. In fact, it is quite an impressive looking movie in general. I am surprised at how well it has aged. The only draw back is that there are a few moments where the special effects look a little uncanny, but that sort of thing does happen over time and with new sharper quality prints. It is very excusable all things considered.If you fancy revisiting this horror classic, do not hesitate to buy this version of the film. The bluray looks beautiful and it holds its disgusting charm with pride. It's a very well paced movie and is a great time to be had by all, and I literally mean that. I watched this with my ten year old son (at the time of writing) when this came in the mail and we had an absolute blast. It's a good simple honest gore film. If that interests you then by all means, buy this product.

Put this movie on a movie night with my family and friends expecting this to be cheesy fun 80's flick (the first 20 mins started off like that), but my god, this is a blast. It is much better than the original 1950’s movie version, but it flopped at the box office on account of its poor marketing (the silly title probably doesn’t help). However, it still has a cult following to this day, and I heard a handful of my friends in their 20's talk fondly of seeing the full movie or its clips.It's quite big budget, which allowed some superb special effects moments (there are a few sore bluescreen shots, but that's nothing). It's got some good acting and humour (especially from the underrated actor Kevin Dillon). And the 2nd half in particular is surprisingly engaging because of how well-crafted its basic commercial structure is. It’s got lots of brutal kills, even kids get killed in this movie. And the movie switches well between humor and horror at the right moments, which hardly gives time for boredom.And there's a man-made germ warfare plot line for the conspiracy crowd, lol. Go grab a copy.

It's amazing to see just how entertaining, tightly constructed and physically accomplished The Blob (1988) is when watching it now in 2017. Despite this being a remake of the campy 1958 original b-movie, it puts most modern day movie remakes to shame, the 2006 remake of The Fog (shudder 😟) especially comes to mind. The amazing physical special effects are wonderfully gross as the mindless carnaverous, amorphic blob devours it's unfortunate victims and grows at an uncontrollable rate. Co screenwriter Frank Darabont, with director Chuck Russell, pay homage to Stephen King's themes of small town ambivalence and conspiracy as at first no one believes what is happening until the creature emerges to wreak havoc. Shawnee Smith as Meg, makes for a tough and resourceful heroine who is more than adept at holding her own alongside her co-star Kevin Dillon. Joss Whedon loves her performance and it's no wonder how much of an inspiration Shawnee Smith was when Joss Whedon created Buffy for BTVS. On this great English language Region 2 Columbia Tri-Star import DVD from Germany, the English soundtrack Dolby Digital two surround sound stero channel and picture quality are good and you also get a trailer.