Thanks to On Demand, Tai ran a double feature of
The Blob today, both the 1958 and '88 versions. Both are actually fairly good horror pictures, but are also both of them completely silly, too. Here's what I remember:
The Opening'58: A bunch of circles, while "Beware of the Blob" is sung, roughly to the tune of "Feliz Navidad". Which, of course, is entirely non-threatening.
'88: A long slow sequence with semi-decent music, showing a completely empty town. It just goes on and on, and takes about 5 minutes into the film to see a human being.
The EffectsIt's a movie about killer space Jell-O, so it's gonna look darn goofy either way. The '88 version did, of course, have
better stupid effects, though. Although I could swear that a year later,
Ghostbusters II would use the same effects for their mood slime. The '80s version is also a lot more graphic, which is ...interesting. Either way, I like them, no matter if they're making me laugh instead of gasp. I can only imagine the CGI monstrocity they'd make if they remade it a third time. (Please don't, Hollywood, the practical effects were silly but
effective.)
Plot PointsBoth films had some interesting plot bits which made them stand out. These are basically my reactions to each movie.
'58:- The last line of the movie is hilarious/horrifying from a modern perspective. "It'll stay... as long as the Arctic stays cold." 50 years later...
'88- The '88 version didn't shy away from depicting the death of a child, which impressed me. The '58 version didn't even have the guts to kill off the little dog.
- The addition of a background story for the Blob's origin was completely unnecessary, and made some unnecessary secondary villains. We don't need that, we just want to see the Blob melting some more dudes. The '50s version actually had more mystery to it by not talking about the Blob's origins at all.
- The death of the main character expy from the first film actually surprised me. They set him all up like the '58 version's Steve and you expected him to be the main character instead of the second victim.
In ConclusionI liked both films. Both were charming in their own slime monster way, even if I didn't take them entirely seriously, and I would be interested in owning at least one of them on DVD.
