Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Blob Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 16, 2014

Franklin Delano Roosevelt once famously intoned that the only thing to be feared was “fear itself,” and co-writer and director Chuck Russell mentions that something akin to that formulation sparked his interest in rebooting the 1958 horror film The Blob. The late fifties iteration of a big, slimy bunch of goop overpowering an initially disbelieving town has been taken for years as yet another allegory about incipient Communism mucking up our celebrated Capitalist works. But Russell in the engaging commentary included on this Blu-ray makes the perhaps obvious case that a “villain” as amorphous as The Blob really shouldn’t have too literal an analog, and might instead be better “enjoyed” (if that’s the right word) as a more inchoate symbol of Man’s fear of the unknown. Despite that inventive rethinking of the original film’s premise, Russell’s 1988 reboot doesn’t shy from subtext, in this case a perhaps late Reagan Era distrust of government and its sometimes shady doin’s. If this version doesn’t quite have the old school charm of the original, it’s an often inventive remake that features some good performances, appealingly gruesome special effects and a rather dark but effective sense of humor.

Certain elements of the original The Blob are recycled here, but Russell and co-writer Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) rather smartly toy with the audience’s preconceptions, setting the viewer up for a couple of nice, and even shocking, surprises. Much as with the first film, there’s a mysterious meteor like object that zooms through a rural night and crash lands to earth, drawing the intense interest of a homeless man. That unfortunate soul becomes a kind of horrifying Patient Zero once he has the questionable temerity to poke and prod at the smoking embers of the meteor, releasing a slimy, goopy something that immediately attaches itself to him, leading to his ultimate demise.

But where the original film focused on two teenagers who desperately try to convince other townspeople of the incipient threat, in a kind of analog to similar efforts by Kevin McCarthy in another fifties paranoid fantasy, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this version takes a slight but surprising detour. Russell and Darabont still focus on a teenage couple, but without revealing too much, let’s just say that it turns out not to be the couple some might expect as the film gets underway.

This The Blob takes a bit more time setting up various interrelationships, including a nascent romance between football jock Paul Taylor (Donovan Leitch) and his would be girlfriend, cheerleader Meg Penny (Shawnee Smith). Initially somewhat on the sidelines but soon “promoted” to center stage is local bad boy Brian Flagg (Kevin Dillon), a motorcycle riding tough who has an early interaction with the homeless man who ultimately finds the mysterious meteor.

There are several other supporting characters in and around the town that Russell and Darabont feature in various vignettes, including sweet local diner owner Fran Hewitt (Candy Clark), and Sheriff Geller (Jeffrey DeMunn), a probably well meaning guy who’s nonetheless something of a dolt. Some fun sidebars involve the town Reverend (Del Close) and a kind of funny brief vignette involving Paul and Meg's pharmacist father.

A rather gruesome death forces Meg and Brian to team up to try to get help, but another little twist that Russell and Darabont throw into the mix makes figuring out where to actually get that help a problem. This new version has a more concrete “villain” (outside of The Blob itself), positing a sinister conspiracy that has obviously spun out of control. Meanwhile, Russell stages a number of fanciful and often grotesquely funny death scenes, as The Blob, seemingly sentient despite being a big pile of goo, preys on unsuspecting humans right and left.

The ironic thing about this reboot is how Russell wants to make The Blob less of a concrete symbol for something—whether that’s incipient Communism or anything else—while at the same time placing the entire story within a much more defined context than the original did. It’s a somewhat risky gambit, but the film tends to work in spite of the contrivance. The film benefits from some well done special effects, including some especially gruesome (literal) dissolves, as The Blob’s flesh eating capabilities put any current viral fears to shame.

The Blob Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Blob is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Twilight Time with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Culled from the Tri-Star catalog, this may have been sourced from a somewhat older master. While detail is quite appealing (if that's the right word, considering the sometimes gruesome circumstances), things look fairly soft quite a bit of the time, especially in the many darker sequences. Expectedly, really brightly lit moments pop quite authentically, with excellent detail and fine detail (see screenshot 1). While the effects work is decently impressive, the Blu- ray's increased resolution reveals things like matte lines (see screenshot 17). Colors are well saturated and nicely vivid, with The Blob's almost fluorescent pink-orange color extremely memorable. Grain is evident throughout the presentation and is fairly heavy in some of the optical effects shots, as should be expected. Elements are in generally superior condition, with little real damage to report.

The Blob Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Blob's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is a lot of fun, with some oopy, goopy sound effects as The Blob slimes its way through the quaint California town where the film takes place. There are some great sound effects when various people meet their demise, with a couple of great highlights in two scenes involving the diner and, much later, the Reverend who, 1953 War of the Worlds style, thinks he can reason with the irrational. While the mix here is often intentionally busy, there's good spatial separation and directionality, and dialogue is never lost in the hubbub. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is extremely wide. There are no problems with damage, dropouts or any other issues on this track.

The Blob Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Friday Night Flights at the Cinefamily (1080p; 18:00). This starts out with some extremely ragged looking trailer video, but take a deep breath and soon enough this segues to a fun Q&A with Chuck Russell.


• Green Trailer (1080p; 1:27)


• Red Trailer (1080p; 1:23)


• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1.


• Audio Commentary with Director Chuck Russell and Horror Authority Ryan Turek. This is a nicely conversational but very interesting and informational commentary. Russell deals with his philosophy behind what (or what not) he wanted The Blob to symbolize, as well as some of the ins and outs of the screenplay.

The Blob Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As is recounted in the commentary included on this Blu-ray, the eighties saw several rather imaginative reboots of older horror films, including The Fly and The Thing. The Blob may not have the innate (lo-fi) charm of the 1958 original, but it's a relatively smart reimagining of the premise, filled with some fun special effects and decent performances by its younger cast members. This Blu-ray boasts generally very solid technical merits and comes Recommended.