The Blob: 1988 (film) - Not a fantastic film, but embodies 80's horror so well

I was a big fan of cheesy horror films in the late 80's and early 90's so it is a surprise to me that I never managed to see this one until yesterday. I will say this right out of the gate: This is NOT a good film. However, it does have all the elements of typical horror films from the 80's and that for me, was kind of a fun trip down memory lane. If you were alive in the 80's, you might end up feeling the same way that I do about it and if you were not alive during that time it could be a fun little cinematic history lesson of sorts.

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Our film begins the same way that any horror film from the 80's would: By introducing all of the character's and briefly explaining their backstory with stereotypical characteristics. We have the jocks, the good girl cheerleaders, the stoic sheriff and his loose cannon deputies, and of course the outcast bad boy that isn't interested in being in parts of any of those cliques.

Of course all of the major characters are high-school students that are played by actors and actresses in their late 20's and early 30's as was typical in the 80's.

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My favorite character in the entire production is "Brian" who is played by Matt Dillon. I'm just kidding, that's Matt's far less accomplished brother Kevin. The way in which they introduce him is so hilariously bad. They needed to present him as the bad boy type so what better way of accomplishing this than having him leather-clad, alone in the woods, drinking a beer and uncaringly chucking the empty can into the woods. Then, while still smoking a cigarette, he decides with no one else watching that he is going to jump over a broken bridge on his motorcycle..... and fails. Don't worry, this is exposition of something that will be "important" later.

Some old man who lives in the woods is introduced in this same scene as he laughs at Brian for his failure to make the jump, then picks up his discarded beer can and puts it into his recycling bag. Finally, someone with some sense of environmentalism. This same old man later stumbles upon something that crashed to earth in the woods and well, I am sure you can guess what that something is.

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The blob initially attaches to the old man in the woods, but because it is necessary to the storyline, he eventually ends up in a hospital, carried there by none other than Bad Boy Brian, and this is where the blob starts to gain momentum and size. There is an extremely silly point in the film where the old man, who was carted in by three teenagers for the doctor to look at, and his body, that the entire staff saw carted in intact, is all of a sudden badly decomposed and cut in half. Therefore, the police immediately assume that Bad Boy Brian did this, even though it is completely impossible that he could have done such a thing. This is such amazing police work.

There is a particular scene where the Blob is chasing Bad Boy Brian and the innocent cheerleader and they run into a walk in freezer where the blob reels back in terror as it touches the cold. To me, in reality this would be the end of the problem. It is obvious from this point forward that cold is what will kill the blob. Yet, because the movie needs to be 90 minutes long, they don't even bother to tell anyone this for a while and when they do, of course no one believes them because they are just stupid 30 year old teenagers.

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I will say this though: The effects in this movie are actually extremely good considering the fact that CGI was in its beginning stages at that point in time so any of this that happens had to be meticulously done by hand. There is some CGI in the film, but it looks pretty terrible.... but then again, this is what makes the movie kind of fun. It is obvious that the thing pursuing the hapless teenagers is not actually in the scene with them, and their reactions to something that wasn't actually in front of them while they are acting can be hilarious at times.

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The only real twists that this film has is that there are some characters that seem extremely important to the story that are unceremoniously killed off in a flash. We are lead to believe that they are major parts of the story and than whammo! They are turned into jelly and increase the size of the blob in the process.

Nothing that happens in this film is particularly scary, it is more of a gore-fest that was likely quite difficult and expensive to pull off in 1988.

Should I watch it?

Honestly, I think for most people that this movie is going to fall flat and they are not going to enjoy it. The story itself is stupid and nonsensical. It is frustrating to watch a film of this type and not just get upset by the stupid decisions that every character in it makes... well all except for Bad Boy Brian, who seems to have the answer to everything even though he is reviled by most of the other characters in the movie.

For fans of gore flicks I suppose this could be ok and like I mentioned before, this is a good laugh for anyone out there that remembers how ridiculous all of the American-made horror films were from that period of time. This is really the only reason to watch this movie. For me, it was unintentionally a comedy and I think for other people who think like I do, it can be the same.

_{The only place that I am aware of where you can legally watch this film is on Vudu}