In
the same strain of other great remakes like 'The Thing' and 'The
Fly', 'The Blob' is a great portrayal of a neat idea. It starts with
the classic comet bringing an alien threat to Earth situation (though
there's a twist on this later, and many of the smaller elements of
the plot are quite subversive). It was either going to be a teenage
couple making out in a car or a homeless guy and his dog who first
finds the meteor. In this case it was the later. The main characters
find the homeless guy and take him to the hospital, there the blob
grows and eats football guy. It then makes its way to his friend and
another girl in the date rape mobile, eats them, grows. You can see
where this is going.
What
I like about this film is that several of the deaths were really
unexpected, and even the minor characters had enough of an
introduction for us to get a sense of them (and not necessarily care
about them, but recognise them when they're being absorbed).
There
are lots of nice little set ups that are payed off later on (other
than the odd red herring - I'm thinking of the snow machine here, but
the whole boss character was fun, as honestly I expected him to be
one of the first to go, when he actually doesn't turn up again until
the end, when he suggests they go get the dump truck to transport the
frozen blob pieces into storage). Examples of these are the the store
guy turning out to be the girl's dad (possibly my favourite ribbed
condom joke in a movie), the mum making her kid wear that hoodie with
a zipper, and the jump over the gorge. There's very little waste in
the story, and the result is a film so engaging that it feels like
you've only been watching for around an hour when suddenly the movie
is ending and you want more.
The
movement of the blob was really nicely done too - all practical
effects, of course, and it's strengths and weaknesses are laid out
for us fairly early on. All round it's a very engaging horror, and
while not being particularly thoughtful it was certainly enjoyable.
The Blob: 54.2