The Blob
(1958, Dir. by Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.)
Why It's Here:
It's kind of impossible for me to come up with a logical explanation for this. Heck, I just dropped this bad boy into the list ahead of the likes of Rosemary's Baby, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Poltergeist, and more. I have spent plenty of words on The Blob in my day, often discussing how much I love the teenage rebellion aspect of the film and the amorphous villain who reeks of simplicity, but can I argue that The Blob is a more well made and or scarier film than any of those I listed above? No, not really. So why's The Blob up here? Ummm...let me get back to you on that one.
The Moment That Changes Everything:
I've often talked about how the small town family plot is my favorite thing about The Blob these days - the film has as much in common with Rebel Without a Cause as it does with Godzilla. But the film's horror hook - which is topped by the grand scale (for its budget, that is) movie theater sequence - is must see stuff for me.
It Makes a Great Double Feature With:
Most of the time, when I mention how much I love The Blob, people are like "Oh yeah man, Shawnee Smith is hot!" Or sometimes they're like "Oh, Darabont co-wrote that and gave it a great edge!" Or sometimes they're like "What's up with Kevin Dillon's hair?" And I'm like "THAT'S THE REMAKE, YOU TWIT!" Seriously, it's a severe horror bugaboo of mine. But hey...I'll admit that the remake is pretty good. Just stop dismissing the original in my presence. Watch The Blob with 1988's The Blob. You'll thank me later.
What It Means To Me:
Well, it means enough for me to ignore its (numerous) shortcomings and rank it among my twenty favorite horror movies, doesn't it? I know in my heart that The Blob isn't a great film. I've known it's not even necessarily good since I was 8. But I smile like a mad man every time I think about The Blob. If we can have popcorn movies in comedy and action and other genres, I can have my beloved popcorn sci-fi/horror classic with Steve(n) McQueen as an old teenager and a plastic jelly monster, right? I'm saying right. The Blob might not be the biggest or best, but it's one of the most important horror movies ever to me and I still kind of feel bad that I'm ranking it this low. I megalove The Blob that much.
The Moment That Changes Everything:
I've often talked about how the small town family plot is my favorite thing about The Blob these days - the film has as much in common with Rebel Without a Cause as it does with Godzilla. But the film's horror hook - which is topped by the grand scale (for its budget, that is) movie theater sequence - is must see stuff for me.
It Makes a Great Double Feature With:
Most of the time, when I mention how much I love The Blob, people are like "Oh yeah man, Shawnee Smith is hot!" Or sometimes they're like "Oh, Darabont co-wrote that and gave it a great edge!" Or sometimes they're like "What's up with Kevin Dillon's hair?" And I'm like "THAT'S THE REMAKE, YOU TWIT!" Seriously, it's a severe horror bugaboo of mine. But hey...I'll admit that the remake is pretty good. Just stop dismissing the original in my presence. Watch The Blob with 1988's The Blob. You'll thank me later.
What It Means To Me:
Well, it means enough for me to ignore its (numerous) shortcomings and rank it among my twenty favorite horror movies, doesn't it? I know in my heart that The Blob isn't a great film. I've known it's not even necessarily good since I was 8. But I smile like a mad man every time I think about The Blob. If we can have popcorn movies in comedy and action and other genres, I can have my beloved popcorn sci-fi/horror classic with Steve(n) McQueen as an old teenager and a plastic jelly monster, right? I'm saying right. The Blob might not be the biggest or best, but it's one of the most important horror movies ever to me and I still kind of feel bad that I'm ranking it this low. I megalove The Blob that much.
Posts
2 comments:
an instant classic, with a great poster
I only saw this one for the first time last year, and it didn't quite do it for me but my goodness: the opening credit sequence is hypnotizing. Literally. My cat sat staring at that screensaver-y background as Burt Bacharach's tune played and we forgot all our troubles.
Post a Comment