| The Blob | |
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Promotional film poster |
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| Directed by | Chuck Russell |
| Produced by | Jack H. Harris Elliott Kastner |
| Written by | 1958 screenplay: Theodore Simonson Kay Linaker Screenplay: Chuck Russell Frank Darabont |
| Story by | Irving H. Millgate |
| Starring | Kevin Dillon Shawnee Smith Donovan Leitch Jeffrey DeMunn Candy Clark Joe Seneca Del Close Paul McCrane Art Lafleur Beau Billingslea |
| Music by | Michael Hoenig |
| Cinematography | Mark Irwin |
| Editing by | Tod Feuerman Terry Stokes |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 5, 1988 (USA) |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Country | U.S. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $19,000,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $8,247,943 (USA) |
The Blob is a 1988 American monster horror film distributed by Tristar Pictures. It is a remake of the 1958 film of the same name, which starred Steve McQueen. The film was written by Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont and directed by Russell. The shooting took place in Abbeville, Louisiana.
Contents |
A meteorite crashes near the town of Arborville, California. An elderly transient discovers, within the sphere, a jelly-like substance (the Blob) that attaches itself to his hand. Three high school students, Brian (Kevin Dillon), Meg (Shawnee Smith), and Paul (Donovan Leitch), encounter the man and take him to a hospital. After Brian leaves, Paul witnesses the lower half of the transient melting from exposure to the Blob. As he calls for help, the Blob drops on top of him. Meg arrives to see Paul being devoured by the growing Blob and while trying to free him his arm is torn from his body, Meg is thrown against a wall and knocked unconscious and the Blob oozes out of the hospital.
After Brian and Meg have unsatisfactory encounters with the police, they meet at a diner where Meg tells Brian about the Blob. Brian's disbelief is shattered when the diner's handyman is grabbed and pulled head first through the sink drain by the Blob. It pursues them to the diner's walk-in freezer where it retreats because it cannot tolerate cold. After eating the diner's owner and the town's sheriff, the Blob reenters the sewers.
Meg and Brian return to the police station, where the dispatcher tells them Deputy Briggs (Paul McCrane) is near the meteor-landing site. They discover a military operation led by a scientist, Dr. Meddows (Joe Seneca), who orders the town quarantined. Brian escapes a military van and collects his motorbike.
Meg is taken to town where she learns her younger brother Kevin (Michael Kenworthy) is missing. Meg learns he and his friend Eddie (Douglas Emerson) have sneaked into the local theater to see a slasher film thanks to Eddie's usher brother Anthony (Jamison Newlander). The Blob infiltrates the theater and attacks the staff and then the audience. Meg arrives as the audience is fleeing the theater and manages to rescue Eddie and Kevin.
Brian eavesdrops on Meddows speaking to his assistant Jennings (Robert Axelrod) and learns that the Blob is a biological warfare experiment created during the Cold War. Anthony then reports that he witnessed The Blob chasing Meg, Kevin, and Eddie into the sewers. Brian overhears Meadows decide to trap The Blob in the sewers, and that he is willing to let Meg, Kevin, and Eddie die to do so. Brian is discovered listening in and evades military personnel by driving his motorcycle into the sewers.
In the sewers, Meg, Eddie, and Kevin flee from the Blob. Kevin escapes to the surface by scaling a pipe and squeezing through a grate while Eddie is devoured. Meg is saved by Brian, who confronts Meddows in front of the townsfolk and Briggs. After failing to convince everyone Brian is contaminated and must die, Meddows attempts to shoot Brian, but is killed by the Blob as it drags him into the sewer with one of its tentacles. The Blob proceeds to feast upon the population, proving impervious to the military's attempts to stop it (getting shot multiple times while in the sewer and blown up, which only angered it). In the ensuing panic, the town's Reverend Meeker (Del Close) proclaims the scene to be the prophesied end of the world, after which a failed flamethrower attack on the Blob sets him ablaze. Meg saves him with a fire extinguisher, and in the process blasts the Blob with it. The monster backs off, and she realizes that it cannot stand cold.
The surviving humans retreat to the town hall and hold the Blob at bay with furniture-barricades and fire extinguishers, but it is a losing battle, as a result with the Blob engulfing half of the building and devouring Briggs. Brian goes to the town's garage and gets a snow maker truck that has canisters of liquid nitrogen attached. Just as the Blob is about to devour Meg and her family, Brian drives to town hall and shoots snow at the creature, which is angered and knocks the truck over. As the Blob surges toward Brian, Meg lures it away from him towards the canisters–which she has rigged with an explosive charge taken from a dying soldier. She tries to get clear, but snags her foot between two pieces of metal, leaving her dangling upside down. Brian regains consciousness and runs over to free her. The Blob is about to overrun them when the charge goes off, blowing up the canisters and covering the Blob with liquid nitrogen. The creature is flash-frozen, shattering into a mass of crystallized pieces. Moss Woodley (Beau Billingslea) has its remains hauled away to the town ice house.
The film cuts to a tent-meeting church service in a field, where Meeker, disfigured by his burn injuries, is now crazed, preaching a doomsday sermon sounding like the Blob's attack. Asked when the time of reckoning will come, he replies "Soon...Madame...soon...the Lord will give me a sign", and holds up a glass jar containing a fragment of the Blob, which is slowly moving.
Screenwriter Frank Darabont first met director Chuck Russell in 1981, while working as a production assistant on the film Hell Night.[1] Before working together on The Blob, the two also collaborated on the script for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.[1]
Actor Del Close was unexpectedly available to audition for The Blob in New York at a time when Russell was conducting auditions in the city.[2] Fortuitously for Close, he had recently written a blob-themed story for the DC Comics horror anthology Wasteland, while Russell had just watched an example of Close's work as the in-flight movie on his flight in to New York, Brian De Palma's The Untouchables.[3] Close had worked in the past as a fire eater and human torch, and he was set on fire for some insert shots within the film.[4] He also lost a substantial amount of weight at the request of Russell, dropping from 198 pounds to 173 pounds during the course of the production.[5]
Production began on January 11, with the cast and crew of approximately 150 staying at a Travelodge in Abbeville, Louisiana.[6] Due to the large amount of night shooting, the cast often slept during the day.[7] On off days, they watched videos at the hotel and ate crawfish, a popular item of local cuisine.[7]
Special effects in the film were handled by Tony Gardner.[8] Gardner was originally supposed to handle only a few small effects, but after personnel changes he ended up running a crew of 33, including artist Chet Zar and mechanical effects designer Bill Sturgeon.[8] Close's makeup for his role as Reverend Meeker required extensive preparation time - five and a half hours for scenes where Meeker had fresh burns, and seven and a half hours for scenes after his burns had healed.[7]
The film was released theatrically in the United States by TriStar Pictures in August 1988. It grossed $8,247,943 at the box office.[9]
The Blob received mixed reviews from critics, it currently holds a 59% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.8/10.
The film was released on DVD in the United States by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in 2001.[10]
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