This is my
first viewing of The Blob and I was surprised I liked it quite a bit. I will
admit, the title is pretty boring, like The Thing, so I was turned off to it. I
was expecting some silly slime ball movie more funny than scary. In the end, I
think there were more good qualities than bad from my perspective.
I’ll start
with my criticisms. I stated the first one, which is the title. Pretty uninteresting.
It was released a year before I was born, so I really had no reason to want to
watch it when I got a bit older. I was all about aesthetics on covers and
fantasy titles. The only other really big complaint I have about the film is
the predictability. I mean, it could just be because I (we) study stories and
the art of storytelling, but the first few moments of the story told me right
away that...
And it is the answer!
It’ll be cold so your bike is
useless, but not really because it’s small and concealed and right next to the
crash site, and hey that guy has this snow machine behind him that he likes to
keep beers in! What a strange thing to have in a ski tourist town. I guess, if I was a standard movie goer, all these set ups are fun
gems in a rewatch. For me, it just felt like I always knew what was going to
happen.
And Drew Barrymore
had it right in opting to kill her character right away in Scream. I knew who
the protagonists were just by their fame, but this is also 2019 me saying this
about a movie from ’88, and I haven’t seen any other Blob movies. At first, I
thought Brian was Matt Dillon but turns out it’s his more baby-faced brother,
Kevin. I’m just happy the jocks died early on, even if Paul wasn’t a bad guy.
It set the stakes and showed that not just the perverts or baddies are going to
get swallowed. Nomnom.
The last
criticism I have is the reactions of the characters to events was unrealistic.
I think everything was shrugged off too easily. Why would the cops think that
the town’s punk massacred the people in the hospital like that? Wouldn’t they
wonder why there was a juicy arm sitting on the floor and a gelatinous truncated
old homeless man? Why didn’t the blob eat Meg when she passed out? I also didn’t
see a point where Meg went from being the scared girl to the tough girl counterpart
to Brian. I feel like seeing someone melting inside Flubber would put an
average person into total shock, especially if she pulled his arm off. Fran’s reaction
felt the most real to me, and I was surprised she and the sheriff died. That
was pleasantly unexpected, and I may have laughed.
To counter
my own criticisms, I think it was fun that I knew what was going to happen a
lot of the time. For example, I think it is obvious for everyone who watches it
that the crystals the Reverend puts in the jar would have a call back at the very
end. It lets viewers watch the movie and yell at the characters for doing
obviously stupid things. The predictable archetypal characters worked well so
we knew who to cheer for and be sad for when they met their end. The satisfying
deaths also help with the horror enthusiast’s desire to see the monster work
its magic when the main characters get to survive/monster gets defeated.
Overall, I
thought the film was entertaining and fun. I liked the little jokes thrown
around, the constant danger, and the multiple threat angles (the monster
itself, the cops, the reverend, the biological warfare team, even the jocks.)
Plus, everything was set to be an obstacle: The nurse, the condom scene/father
of Meg, the underage movie goers, the doctor, the homeless man, both jocks. And
how could you not love a horror movie that doesn’t kill the animals? I think it
was well plotted and wrapped up nicely.
I also liked that Paul was killed early on, and for pretty much the same reason. I expected him to ride off into the sunset, so it was a good wake up call. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that the town punk was setup to ride off with the girl in the end, so I think I just kind of blinked and missed that one early on. Once Paul died, I told myself, of course he did. That clears the way for Flagg to get Meg in the end.
ReplyDeleteThis movie had too many cliches for my liking. The blob itself was cool, but I didn't like the predictability this movie had.
"Blubber" took me out, Vince. ROFL. I also have a lot of issues watching films as a Horror writer. Logan and I try and see all new HORROR films in theaters when we can, or we rent them, and he considers himself a huge movie critic. He never lasts more than five minutes when writer Alexis comes out and talks about all the issues with plot holes, characters, or urgency. So, I think it is funny you mention how we study plot as writers. Event he most avid horror film fans cannot match me when I start talking about issues with the writing behind the screen.
ReplyDeleteI have a really good intuition about what is going to happen about midway through a book or film. I had a feeling the ending was going to be a let down for me. I enjoyed the predictability this had as well. I was thrilled knowing that, "Oh, they are about to die" as scenes flashed through.
"the multiple threat angles (the monster itself, the cops, the reverend, the biological warfare team, even the jocks."
ReplyDeleteI didn't actively think about this while watching the movie, but after the fact it was a really nice way to make you root for the characters to win, because they're not just against the monster, but against the whole world. Not only that, but they made us really not like the police for brushing off megs recollection of the blob or the scientists saying more about war weapons than human lives.
I really liked that the movie was predictable because the 80s movie vibe was cheesy to begin with, so it worked very well for me.
Hi Vincent, that is an excellent point about the way in which multiple obstacles are piled up against the protagonist in the film. I never really thought about that aspect of the plot. Excellent insight. It really does build sympathy for Flagg. The whole world is against him.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of your analysis, and I really appreciated that characters I thought must be safe ended up dying. It definitely helped raise the stakes and made me uncertain whether Meg and Flagg were going to make it to the end (though I suspected they might). I also agree with your point that looking for clues that would tie into the resolution later made the story a little predictable, though in a kind of fun "I'm as smart as the filmmakers"-type of way. It was also interesting to see examples of how Russell used those clues—since I definitely think that type of foreshadowing is much easier to appreciate as a viewer than accomplish as a writer. I was really hoping that the Blob crystals the Reverend stole were going to make an appearance at the very end, and I'm so glad they did. Again, that felt like a moment that could have been predictable if I trusted in the writing to close all its plot holes, but because I'm often skeptical that writers know what sorts of Chekov's guns they're inserting into their own work, it was a pleasant surprise that Russell actually closed that hole—and did it in a way that (to me) made the ending way better than a pure "happily ever after."
ReplyDelete