THE BLOB (1955)
It lives... It grows... It's The Blob! Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr's classic about kids, cops, and goo from outerspace (sorry, Venom, this movie beat you to the interstellar goo punch by 34 years).
The film begins (following one of the most bizarre opening title sequences I guarantee you'll ever see and hear) with Steven Andrews (played by the incomparably forever frozen at the age of 40 Steve McQueen) and his girlfriend Jane Marin (Aneta Corsaut) parked on a lover's lane, doing what couples do in those sorts of places... Making out (come on, people, it was the 50's). After witnessing and investigating a meteorite impacting not too far from where they were parked, the couple find an old man (Olin Howland) with a bizarre goo attached to his hand. After dropping him off at the local doctor (Steven Chase), he determines that it's some sort of parasite, feeding on the old man's arm. The young couple soon discover that the mysterious substance they came across has a taste for human flesh and it grows larger and larger anytime it consumes whatever poor soul that crosses its path.
First of all, I can not begin to express how much I love everything about The Blob, from it's score (and very very out of place opening cha-cha tune by Burt Bacharach) to the very strong cast of some of the oldest high school students you'll ever see. Sure it's really corny, but these were the enterainment films of their day, meant to be made for a very low budget and make back it back in profits several times over. Think of it as the "Paranormal Activity" of its day, only it's far better and it wasn't exploited to make countless sequels.
One of the appeals of horror pictures to the people who produce them is that they are essentially date movies. A guy or girl will take out their significant other to a scary film, in which they can hold each other close and let one another play out the characterized masculine/feminine roles, if you want to think of it that way. Now-a-days it could be that you just love Steve McQueen or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And boy does this movie really go for the date movie aspect. There's even a scene in a theater above, in which our hero's friends are in a horror-thon of their own at the local cinema.
Run, don't walk!
McQueen charms as the strong, tanned, everyman who gets in way over his head. His performance reminds me of Jesse Eisenberg's in Zombieland. I know you're all horrified that I just compared McQueen to Eisenberg, but what I mean is that in both performances, we forget that we're supposed to be watching a young 20 somethings because the characters are so sincere. He has a cute girl, a fast car, and then we remember that McQueen's adversary is a giant half of a PB&J from space.
This film doesn't take itself seriously at all and for that reason "The Blob" stays as light popcorn fare as opposed to drowning in it's own verisimilitude, displayed beautifully in act III when a small child tries to take on the monster with his Howdie Doody style toy pistol and holster, as opposed to a movie like "Snakes on a Plane". In that that particular film, too much time was spent making it seem like this is a case study as to what can actually occur if there were a plane full of snakes than having fun with the idea.
The movie is from 1958 and in those days the shots were longer and scenes were cut more "slowly" as opposed to the break neck speed that started coming through a couple short years later in the mid - 60's, and the film does wander, but never loses its purpose: the mysterious parasite is on the loose and can't be killed. At least not with the obvious like guns and such. And that comes across our characters every minute they're fighting it on screen.
Like many other movies in the 50's, this is very much in that cold war style of an attack in a "hometown", a place that we all know and are comfortable with, being invaded or terrorized by a supernatural force we can't control. Not so subtle anymore that the past is behind us.
One thing that I do have to comment about is the beautiful 4K restoration by the Criterion Collection. If you are going to own this film, which I think every cult fan should, Criterion's release is the way to go. Even after more than 50 years, the colors are vibrant, the soundtrack is beautiful, and the package is presented in a way that makes the film as worthy of such a release as it's more serious cinematic siblings from Criterion.
7/10
THE BLOB (1958)
- Directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.
- Written by Theodore Simonson, Kay Linaker (as Kay Phillips), and Irvin H. Millgate
- Runtime - 82 minutes
- Suggested release: The Criterion Collection Blu Ray - spine #91
- 69% on Rotten Tomatoes
- 6.3 on IMDb
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051418/
- http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-blob/
- http://www.criterion.com/films/630-the-blob
- http://www.amazon.com/The-Blob-Criterion-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B00AQ6J4XM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380084765&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Blob
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