365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 174 - The Blob (1988)

The 1988 remake of the sci-fi classic The Blob has little to offer except some high tech special effects and a few good scare moments. The best is when a woman trapped in a phone booth tries to call the sheriff's office for help. Another involves a restaurant kitchen and a drain. I won't say more.

I will say more about how poorly executed this movie is. The worst problem is the script. It relies on the characters to act stupidly in order to propel the plot along. From a nurse and doctor or are non-responsive to urgent dries for medical help to a ridiculous U.S. military subplot, the script has really been dumbed down.

Another problem with the movie is the amount of noise the victims make when they die and how much the other folks have selective hearing. A young girl responds to the screams of agony as her date is consumed by the blob. As we see the blob take its first victim she is screaming at the top of her lungs. Yet in a busy hospital no one comes quick enough so she can point to the thing oozing away that just killed her boyfriend. In the next seen the blob oozes into a car while a young girl sits and waits for her date who is mixing drinks at a mini-bar in the trunk. There is no noise or movement in the car. Then when he climbs in the car and discovers his girl has been consumed and the blob attacks him there is blood, screaming and violent shaking of the car.

In the next attack there are four people alone in a diner. The cook in the kitchen, the waitress and two customers in the restaurant. When the cook is attacked and starts screaming the other three don't come rushing in. The waitress wanders in while he is being consumed without a clue of what's happening. When she sees the blob eating the cook she screams and the two customers here her and come rushing in. Careless script writing like that really detracts from the realism of any type of horror movie.

The writers kept the subplot of the juvenile delinquent hero, played in the original by a young Steve McQueen, and in the remake by Kevin Dillon. Dillon and all the others town people are one note stock characters there to be eaten by the blob according to the screenplays needs. Even the blob does not behave the same way in every scene. It does what the script tells it to in order to keep the hero's in the maximum amount of danger without being eaten. The only interesting person in the whole town is the Reverend meeker, played by Del Close. They film gives him an interesting epilogue that is more intriguing than the entire movie that came before.

At The Movie House rating ** stars. Original vs. Remake - stick with the original.