The Blob (1988)

Episode 333, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guide in a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, this month we had asked our patrons to choose our next theme month, and we whittled it down over two separate polls. I think we had a really long poll. We took it down to the top three and then we asked them again.

And what our patrons wanted us to do for the month of February was re. . You know, actually I think we had done, uh, one year we did sequels, Uhhuh for the month of February being like the second month. And , I’m 

sorry, 

Craig: because cuz we’re clever. Like that 

Todd: back when we were trying to be clever, right? back when we did more theme months.

This is kind of our first theme month in a while, I think know. So, uh, anyway, it was really fun to do it. So we stacked up a whole pile of possibilities. for us to do that are remix. Of course. We’ve done quite a few remakes already on this show. And one question that we did have that we posed to our patrons was there’s remakes and there’s reboots, right?

Uhhuh. , yeah. Does it matter if we do reboots? What’s the difference? Looking at the chatter on our Patreon page, uh, it looks like our patrons decided no, they really want us to do remakes and not reboots. Yeah. Which it’s fine. . Yeah. 

Craig: And no, it’s totally fine. And they’re right. Reboots are different. It’s just these days it’s almost like sometimes you don’t even know.

It’s almost always reboots Well, right. But you don’t even know until you actually are in the seat. You know? Like, uh, the ones, the ones that I mentioned on the patriotic, I mentioned, uh, specifically Candyman, Hellraiser, and Wrong Turn, you know, they, they’re identical and title, I feel like they’re kind of advertised as remakes, but then mm-hmm.

When you actually see them, the ones specifically that I just mentioned seem to exist in the same world as the original, but they’re new stories, so they technically are reboots, but there have been a lot of cool ones coming out. So we may just have to, you know, another month for reboots. Yeah. Because the people 

Todd: have spoken , right?

A remake is when they take the original movie and more or less follow a similar plot line. Of course, they often make changes, right. But more or less tell the same story. And a reboot is usually when they do something drastically different with it. Right? Right. Either a different plot or they’re kind of reimagining the characters or reimagine the scenario or something like, 

Craig: Right.

Right. And, and I don’t know, I’m interested, what are your thoughts on remakes? Cuz I feel like it’s really polarizing. I think people are like fans or they hate them. Well, 

Todd: I think it depends on the movie really. You know, the more iconic and well regarded a movie is, I think the more I think a remake can be.

stupid . Like, you know, why take a really wonderful movie that everybody universally loves and thinks is great, and then try to make it again. But then I also feel like there are films that had promise that for one reason or another, and you know, we talk about this a lot on this show, that there’s some films that really on paper should have been really great, and just due to the circumstances, the money available, maybe the acting talent, the budget, whatever, things just kind of didn’t work.

And we’ve, we’ve even said to ourselves, God, like somebody needs to just take this and remake it. Yeah. With a bigger budget or, or better people behind the camera or in front of the camera. Better special effects, things like that. And so I’d like to leave room for that. You know, even I, maybe even with a film that’s highly regard, I, I think, I still think sometimes there can be room for remix.

I think I’m a little liberal on that, although I do roll my eyes at some of my favorite movies being remade. I know, honestly. So maybe I’m a bit hypocritical. . 

Craig: Well, no, I, I think you feel pretty much the same way I do. There are some movies that we just have kind of such an emotional connection to that it just feels like a sacrilege to touch it.

I kind of felt that way about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory like that. Oh God, yes. That movie was so, the original with Gene Wilder was so amazing and such a big part of my childhood. And then, you know, just objectively, the Johnny Depp one is garbage . It really is. 

Todd: Oh my God, it’s 

Craig: so garbage. It’s just a hot mess.

So there are ones like that that, you know, I say leave it alone, but you know, again, that’s. I’m not being, uh, fair or objective. Generally I’m of the opinion, you know, go ahead and remake it. The original is still there. You know, it’s not like, yeah, you’re erasing the original by remaking it. If I like to remake, great.

If I don’t, whatever, the original’s still there. And every once in a while, even iconic movies that I would say, ah, don’t remake that, then they get remade and I’m impressed, like off the top of my head. King Kong, the Peter Jackson one is the one I’m talking about. Oh, right, right. The original from the what, thirties or whatever is, is great.

And I love it for what it is. But Peter Jackson’s King Kong, I just thought was kind of a masterpiece. Like I, it’s a, it’s a movie about a giant gorilla and at the end of that movie, I am weeping, like , like I am an emotional wreck at the end of that movie. Movie. Right. So, you know, they can be good and they can also be awful.

When I heard that they were doing A Nightmare on Elm Street remake. Uh, first of all, Robert England is still alive. Just wait, like, just hold off a minute. Right, . But I don’t know. I was willing to give it a chance and I did, but it was terrible and I hated it. And I just prefer to think that it doesn’t exist.

But I have every, you know, I can do that. I can just pretend it doesn’t exist and that’s fine. The original’s still there, so, you know, I don’t, some of ’em are good, some of ’em aren’t just like any movie, I guess. So I don’t really have strong opinions one way or the 

Todd: other. Well, when the remake is really poor, then it just serves to point a more glowing finger towards, you know, the original and kind of show you why it’s so great.

Maybe get a, be better appreciation for the magic of the original when you see how difficult it is to actually remake it in a quality way. Right. 

Craig: Well, and I think that a part of, you know, the objective, well, a big part of the objective behind remakes is profit. You know, they want to cash in on a already familiar name.

Um, but I also think that it’s about introducing. Films and stories to new generations, which I do understand and appreciate. We, we’ve talked about this before too, how it kind of makes us sad that young people won’t experience or appreciate some of our fav favorite movies just because in their eyes they’re old.

Yeah. And I get that, and I get wanting to bring those stories to new generations. I, I still, nostalgia makes me sad and, and want them to just enjoy the originals. But, um, I, I, I think that sometimes it works because the movie that we chose for this week, I don’t think that I would’ve ever watched the original had it not been for this remake.

And I’m ultimately happy to have seen both. I like them both. Yeah. I 

Todd: this I think time Right, has something to do with it. Like, I think that a movie from the eighties, particular movies from the eighties, you know, putting aside like fashion choices and some music choices and things like that, They don’t feel as dated.

Even watching them today, you know, the gap is a little narrower than say, remaking King Kong, you know? Sure. Black and white movie. Very, very different time. Very, very different. Aesthetic. Special effects. Oh yeah. Even very different filmmaking aesthetic, really. And so to remake a movie, like even this one from the fifties, I think, what was the last, what was the last movie that we saw where I felt similarly?

the original, although a good movie, I, I really enjoyed the Blob. I used to watch it growing up. Actually. That’s what we’re doing by the way. . Oh, sorry, , we forgot to mention it. Alright. Yeah, it’s nine. It’s, it’s a 1988 remake of the 1958 film. The Blob and this, this was actually the 1958 version, was Steve McQueen’s very first, uh, role.

And it’s so funny cuz he’s playing a teenager, but the guy’s obviously . Oh yeah. Obviously not a teenager. Right. He looks older than some of the teenagers in, in the Friday the 13th movies, we watched , but it’s, he’s charming. Um, anyway, I grew up with this movie. I probably watched it three or four times. My dad had it on vhs.

It was exactly the kind of movie he’d have on vhs, the original You’re talking about the original? Yeah, it’s. Kind of goofy, silly, fun. Uhhuh , very much a product of its time. Very dated and like a lot of these 50’s style low budget, sci-fi horror movies or whatever. They were aimed for the drive-in circuit, mostly for teenagers.

They had those elements in there. Like this is like if you watched the trailer for this movie, they’re like the drag racing and the making out teens and you know, stuff like that. And then of course they’re running and screaming from the blob in the theater. There’s not a lot of blob. There’s a lot of talking that happens.

Yeah. to fill out the time . Yeah. I think just a few weeks ago we, we did something similarly where there was an older movie that, uh, we had done the remake of and I was like, yeah, don’t bother to go back and watch the original. Cuz it’s, it’s mostly talking and philosophy of science and stuff. Knowledge of 

Craig: the damned, yeah.

Yeah. That was it. Yeah. It, it’s funny though because I couldn’t remember if I had seen the original or not. Uh, so I watched it again this week and I think that I had seen it, but a long time ago. But I just thought, I just thought it was so charming. Like it was so, it was so cute and quaint. I just really enjoyed it.

They could have cut it down to about a half an hour I think. . Yeah, 

Todd: because two a half an hour or by half an hour, either . 

Craig: Cause there is a lot of like unimportant talking. Like there’s, there’s a main boy and a girl who, you know, are up against the blob or whatever. But then there’ll be 10 minute scenes of them just talking to other teenagers.

Yes.

It doesn’t advance the plot at all. It’s almost like, you know, drive-in fair. Like, okay, go get a snack. You’ve got 10 minutes, you got 

Todd: time . Yeah. Something before you see a blob on the screen again. But 

Craig: I did, I did think that it was really cute. Uh, I actually really enjoyed it. In fact, you know, I, I, I like this one too.

I, I like this remake. I think it’s got a lot going for it. And in many ways, especially from a 2023 perspective, this is kind of quaint also. Mm. 

Todd: In some ways 

Craig: as I was watching it, but yeah, in some ways. But like, as I w it also is clearly a throwback to this era and this style of movies like, you know, these fifties, sixties, um, bee movies.

It’s definitely a throwback to that. Yeah. And it’s kind of got that kind of charm. Um, but as I was watching it, I, I was thinking, um, I feel like it could be good. Kids based on the story. Yeah. But unlike the, uh, 1950s one, there are some really, really cool and good special effects, uh, in, in this remake that potentially could be disturbing to kids.

Like you would have to decide if your kids are sensitive to that kind of thing. Cuz there, there are some really cool gross blob kill effects in this movie, which 

Todd: I really liked. Oh, it’s a, it’s really great. You know, the original doesn’t. Any of that in it really. It’s kind of just a big gelatinous glob and, uh, Uhhuh

This movie takes it and goes, all right, now let’s, let’s really go for it. You know, let’s, let’s show this blob wreaking havoc on people and what it does to people and how it dissolves them. I think, um, the way that they conceptualized it was, was an inside out vampire stomach . Yeah. He said, where it just like this, this big thing that kind of has acid in it as well.

So as soon as it starts touching you, it starts dissolving you. And uh, I think that’s cool. It’s not far off actually from the, what the original filmmakers, uh, of the original, it said, you know, I think the original’s kind of interesting cuz you had said this is a cool concept, right? Yeah. And it is. And like you said, it’s good gateway horror because it’s, it’s very simple, but, uh, it’s also a bit different, especially for the time the original was made by a company that did religious movies.

Called Valley Forge Films. And, uh, you know, one of the producers who helped this, most, these guy, these people, mostly like a congregation or so, you know, they just wanted to spread the word, and they did a lot of spreading the word, but they were kind of starving. And he said, they said for it. And so this Methodist minister, uh, named, uh, Irvin Yay Worth came up with this idea, uh, for the blob.

And the reason that he came up with it apparently was because he had, there had just been, and I had never heard of this before, but there had just been a newspaper report of some guys in Pennsylvania that had discovered, uh, something called star jelly. Do you know about this? No. All right. So I looked this up and I got down some rabbit holes on Star Jelly

But apparently, apparently this has been referenced since like the 14th century in literature, this idea that shooting stars or meteorites after they’re seen, like the next morning you’ll find gelatin type stuff on the ground. It’s this kind of phenomenon that people report finding and there’s a number of scientific explanations for it.

It’s basically, obviously people aren’t finding, there’s no correlation between any jelly you’re gonna find on the ground, any meteor in the sky, . But like when you’re not walking in the morning, you might find like, uh, this stuff that frogs puke up or like special fungus is that end up kind of gelatinous and whatever.

And this report anyway in Pennsylvania is apparently a few guys in the woods found this very large disc of this jelly and they thought it was extraterrestrial from a U F O and they went and they picked it up and it kind of just fell apart and more or less dissolved as they were handling it. And so he took this idea like, why don’t we just do this?

Because he was very uninterested in a guy working around in a suit or some kind of monster walking around that everybody kind of seen before. Some humanoid creature. . And so I don’t think this had really been done before in film. Um, I thought it was kind of a nice original concept and yeah, it made them a ton of money.

Like the budget for the original was $110,000. Um, paramount bought it for like 300,000, put another 300,000 into it for, um, promotion. They showed it as a double feature in drive-ins. It was strict drive-in fair. It was like the second on a double bill, Uhhuh . And, uh, it, it made 4 million bucks. Yeah. So they flipped it and made it the, the top bill.

Yeah. And to this day, like, uh, you know, it, it, it was considered to have been wildly successful. There’s even. A blob fest. Yeah. Every year. Did you, could you read about that ? 

Craig: I did. It’s like, it’s in the town that they felt like it’s in the town that they filmed it in, 

Todd: right? Mm-hmm. the original. Yeah, it the Colonial Theater.

The, the movie theater. Because the, one of the most iconic things of that movie, which, which the remake does do as well, is Uhhuh when the blob just like takes over the projection booth and then just starts growing and oozing out of the booth over all of the patrons in the theater, which you have to imagine was something that they threw in there to kind of get the theater patrons who are watching the movie kind of freaked out out.

Oh, sure, sure. . Yeah. and, uh, and yeah, and then that, that theater is still there in that town where they shot it. And so they try to capitalize on it and try to preserve this historic theater by raising money and through this blob Fest every year. It’s been going on for like 23 years or so. So think about.

that movie still has fans and, and this one too. Crazy, right? . It’s 

Craig: crazy that that scene from the 1950s movie of everybody running out of the theater, I feel like that’s iconic. Like whether or not, you know, it comes from the blob. I bet you’ve seen it. Oh, the 

Todd: clip. Yeah. For sure. Mm-hmm. , I 

Craig: have questions about star jelly.

Like, are you suggesting that like, frogs see comets in barf? kidding? No. 

Todd: And people find it ? No. It’s just that people f find stuff and, and okay. For some reason it’s, there’s been this romanticized notion that if a meteor or a comet passing by will lead to star jelly on the ground. Sure. And so people walk around and they find this, this stuff, frog bar , like di digested frog spawn vomited by predators.

Yes. 

Craig: Oh, that’s fantastic. 

Todd: Maybe stuff vomited up by birds or animals. Why, why 

Craig: haven’t we seen this 

Todd: movie? I know, right? like, come on, 

Craig: we’re sitting on a, we’re sitting on a gold mine here. . 

Todd: There’s some type of fresh water, uh, bluegreen, algae, like called nasik. When it’s on the ground, it’s ordinarily not seen, but after rainfall, it like swells up and becomes this very conspicuous, kind of like greenish whiteish, gelatinous mass that people, you know, will often call star jelly.

So it’s, it’s a term. It’s crazy. Yeah. , I think, 

Craig: oh man. Where was Star Jelly when we were naming this podcast? I mean, right. 

Todd: Two Guys and Some Star Jelly. Such a, it’s a 

Craig: great name. Uh, yeah. But yeah, so, so this movie , um, I, like I said, I watched the original just a day or two before I watched this one, so I was excited to watch it.

And when the, uh, opening credits started, first of all, the production company, I guess was Tristar. And Tristar has that great intro with the Pegasus that runs towards you. Yeah. On the screen. Tristar was so cool in the day, like it was, you know, if you saw that Pegasus. You were in for a good movie. You were in for a treat.

Yeah, . Um, but, and, and like there’s the, this cool, creepy opening, but I have to admit that I missed the blob theme song from the original. Yes. I think that was maybe my favorite part of the original. That was the best

Beware of the blob. It creeps and leaps and, and slides across the, and all around the wall. A a be careful the 

Todd: blob 

Craig: beware of the blob creeps and leaps. And

it is so good. It was really catchy and like, I guess it was a, a hit, and I’m not surprised. It was a, 

Todd: Bob reached like 33 on the billboard charts that year, 1958. Can you imagine? Oh, and it was written by Burt Bacca Rock. Oh yeah, just kind of nuts. . It’s hilarious. 

Craig: It’s great. So then we get like a flyover of a small town in the middle of nowhere.

Like it almost looks like this is out of a fairy tale or something because it pans in over like this, I don’t know, wooded landscape. And then just in the middle of nowhere there’s just this little town. Mm-hmm. and I and, and then it kind of goes all through the town. It looks like it’s deserted, so you’re wondering what’s going on.

Todd: I thought it was totally deserted, but everyone’s just at the football game. , Uhhuh, . That’s kind of a cool fake 

Craig: out. Well, and I was just gonna say, I noticed in the opening credits that the screenplay, uh, was written in part, uh, by Frank Dban, which I didn’t know going in. And he has. Good, good movies. 

Todd: Oh yeah, he, this is one of his earliest, uh, I think he wrote the, obviously this came before Shawshank, yeah, before the Green Mile, before he got so involved in the Walking Dead franchise.

Almost everything this guy’s written has, has been good. And in this film are some people who end up popping up in some of his later films. But yeah, I did like the Mist and all that. Love Frank Dand. Good. I think he’s a brilliant writer. Yeah, he’s good. And, and they put a lot of callbacks to them original in this mm-hmm.

They also made it very tongue in cheek in a way. I mean, they’re just, Goofy, funny. There’s a bit of black comedy in here. It’s just fun. I mean, I didn’t want to jump the gun here, but like, I just really enjoyed watching this movie. I just thought it was just fun to sit through from beginning to end. It’s just got a ton of action and, and, uh, it, it doesn’t take itself seriously.

Right. But it’s got some great gore, amazing special effects and yeah, you know, some si but, but silliness in there as well. So 

Craig: yeah, I , I a hundred percent agree. It was, uh, fun to sit through and especially if you are familiar with the original, the callbacks are really fun. Like, for example, the first guy to find the blob is an old man.

Uh, and in the original he’s an old man who like lives in a shack in the woods or something. Yeah. With a dog . And it it, right. And that cute dog. I love that dog. Uh, and then, In this one, he seems like an old vagrant or something, but an old man still. And the way that the blob arrives is it arrives like in this meteor that everybody sees, and the old man, uh, goes and he finds it and like, I don’t know, taps it with a stick or something.

And, uh, it opens up and this, you know, blob little tiny white blob thing comes out on the stick. But this scene is like almost shot for shot. Identical. Yes. Uh, from the original. And, and I really enjoyed that. It was fun. But they also paid tribute to the original, but also, Surprise you? Um, yes. Like, like they, like, they set things up, like they’re going to be just like the original, but then they surprise you.

Like in, in the original you mentioned that it was Steve McQueen, uh, his first movie, and, and he’s the hero. He’s very much like the, the jock who’s protecting, you know, the wilting flower of his girlfriend or whatever. Um, and, and they set up that. Here we’ve got two young teenagers. Paul, in my notes I said, Paul is a douchey football player,

Um, and then, uh, Meg, his girlfriend. played by Shawnee Smith, who I have always liked. I I, Shawnee Smith has never been a huge star. Um, but I feel like she’s been around my whole life. Mm-hmm. , uh, I think that the first thing that I remember her from was the movie Summer School. Do you remember that movie? Oh, vaguely.

Oh. It was a great movie and horror adjacent because two of the kids in summer school were like super into like special effects and makeup and so they made all these horror effects and stuff. Great movie. And then she also, uh, was a big part of the Saw franchise, which I know her Yes. A fan of. Yeah. And here she’s a little tiny baby.

Todd: Yeah. She’s so cute, right? Like, she looks like about five other actresses about this time. Yeah, kinda like she does, she does kind of a young, um, I don’t know, take your pick of the eighties actresses. I, maybe they all just had the same hair and makeup, but, uh, and she 

Craig: does, I mean, she’s got the long, like, teased out hair.

I mean, it’s very eighties . Um, she, she’s great. She’s very charming. I, I really like Shawnee Smith. I’m a big, big fan, but she’s, okay. So there’s the couple, like the, you know, the football player and, and the cheerleader. And so you expect that it’s gonna kind of follow the same course as the original, which it kind of does.

But Paul ends up being one of the very first victims, which that’s surprise. Yeah, it shocked me too. I’ve seen this movie before and I was still 

Todd: surprised. , right. It, it it, I mean, it’s, it’s not just different from the blob. It’s, it’s really kind of subverts your expectations for any horror movie ever.

Uhhuh , there’s always that. That’s the nice, because he’s, he’s jockey, but he’s, and he’s a little douchey, but he’s got Doucher friends. I mean, yeah. Yeah, definitely. He, he’s ultimately kind of a nice guy. There’s actually fun, kind of a setup in early when he’s out with his more douchey guy. Was it? Steve or whatever, I don’t know.

And I don’t know, we’ll just call him Steve. And he’s, uh, whatever. It’s all Steve, Brian, Paul, Jim, John, like the old movie’s full of it, . And he’s going, uh, into a, it’s, it’s, it’s an old gag, right? But he’s going to a pharmacy to buy condoms and then he runs in to the minister who happens to be there. And so be in the presence of the minister.

Uh, as he’s buying the condoms, he basically tries to make it out. Like Paul is the one buying the condoms cuz he’s got this date coming up, which is true. Paul does have a DA also has a date coming up. And uh, the guy behind the counter basically says, well, he doesn’t need a condoms, that boy needs a muzzle.

It’s disgusting, you know, and then it turns out, That the guy behind the counter is Meg’s dad. . So Paul up. Yeah. We 

Craig: find that out later, right? Yeah. Yeah. So it’s a funny gag. . It’s, 

Todd: it’s, it’s his oldest dirt, but it’s cute. Right? And the dude behind the counter is played by, um, art LaFleur. Yeah. He’s been in a billion things.

I 

Craig: know. He was so familiar to me. I’m sitting here trying to pull up his page. My computer is so slow. , what? What do I know him from? I know he’s been in so many, he was so familiar. 

Oh, 

Todd: field of Dreams. The Sandlot 

Craig: that Sand the Sandlot. That’s the one he played. What like, uh, Babe Ruth, right? Or something like that.

Yeah, he 

Todd: was, yeah, he was the babe in the Sandlot? Yeah. Mm-hmm. , yeah. Oh, just all over TV and movies. Like, uh, actually he died in 2021. I, I kind of thought he was still alive, but, uh Oh, I didn’t know that. Yeah. No, this guy, uh, this guy’s is, is very recognizable. They’re quite a few people in here actually who are very recognizable.

Craig: Yeah. The guy who plays the, uh, deputy, I really liked him. Uh, the, that’s, that’s, that’s another mislead from the original. In the original there’s this, you know, like sheriff for main cop or whatever, and he ends up being a really pivotal character, and he’s another one of the ones that is first to die in this, um mm-hmm.

And, but he’s got this, uh, deputy and I don’t, uh, I don’t remember what his name was. Jeffrey 

Todd: Deun. Jeffrey Dund is the name of the actor. Is that, well, that, that, 

Craig: that was the sheriff. 

Todd: Oh, sorry. The deputy you’re talking about the redhead? 

Craig: Yeah. His, uh, name, his name in the movie is, uh, bill, but Paul McCrae is Yes, the actor.

And I recognized him, I’m sure he’s been in a lot, but I recognized him, uh, from er, I actually thought that he was kind of a hilarious character on er because he was this dude, he was like this asshole doctor that nobody really liked. And then there was like a helicopter accident at the hospital and it chopped off one of his arms.

And then, and then a couple of seasons later, there, uh, a helicopter crash landed on top of him and he died. Like, that’s such a funny storyline. 

Todd: Wow. It’s like a soap opera. I 

Craig: loved that storyline. I remember the, when the second helicopter. Crashed on top of him. I remember the shot, like it’s a camera, like looking down at him from the helicopter’s perspective.

And of course this is network television, so I’m, I don’t remember exactly what he said, but it was basically like, are you fucking kidding me? And that was hilarious . So good job. Deputy Bill , 

Todd: nice work. He. He had a fairly prominent role in Robocop, but, um, he, he was also guard trout in Shawshank Redemption.

Oh, okay. Yeah. And, and just like Jeffrey Deun, who plays the, uh, sheriff, uh, in this movie also had a big role in Shawshank as well. That’s right. Um, and then went on to play, uh, Dale in the Walking Dead. So, you know, obviously these guys had a bit of, or Frank De Bond anyway, really liked these actors and pulled them along for a number of his projects.

I think. Um, Damman was also in the Green Mile, so, uh, 

Craig: yes, yes. He was, he was one of the guards, gosh. Mm-hmm. . I had forgotten that I recognized them, but I hadn’t paid attention. Yeah. And, and that’s, there are good actors, uh, in this movie. Mm-hmm. , um, and, and acting Well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s a silly movie. It’s a, and it’s campy, but everybody does a good job.

I mean, overall it’s a good movie. It’s shot. Well, uh, I, I really feel like this, the special effects are I. What you want to talk about, I guess. Yeah. 

Todd: Um, the special effects are insanely good. They pull up today, they’re great, they’re unbelievably good. 

Craig: S well, they hold up today. The blob like eating or dissolving or whatever you wanna call it, people that looks fantastic.

Other parts of it, like when the blob is great big and it’s like coming down the street and stuff, it looks hokey and I’m so glad that it does. Like, that’s , that’s what I want it to look 

Todd: like. It’s supposed 

Craig: to look that way. Yeah, right. It looks like an old monster movie. It, look, when you watch those old Godzilla movies that I know you’re a huge fan of.

You know, it’s a guy in a suit, it looks like a guy in a suit and it that, that’s kind of what you’re there for. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. . Um, and same, same thing here, like yeah, it looks like they’re using models and, and toy cars and stop motion and I love it. . Yes, I think it looks 

Todd: great. It does. It looks great.

And honestly like, unless you’re looking at it really closely, some of these shots are quite quick and you might not even notice that it’s a model car. But you know, I’m always looking very intently at this stuff. . The bl the blob. And actually it took me, I was so impressed with how they did the blob effects where, you know, it’s crawling over people and dissolving people that, I went down a couple rabbit holes, I saw some interviews with some of the guys, how they did it.

I was like, how in the world did they do this? Because it’s just this amorphous mass and it’s veiny, it’s sort of like multi-layered. It has what looked like little bits and pieces of the people that it’s dissolved in there. And apparently what they did is they had made these giant silk quilts, essentially these quilts made out of silk, you know, and you know, what a quilt where, you know, you kind of sew pockets, you know?

Yeah. And then they had a team of, like , one guy said they called him the blob rankers, but they were probably maybe even a hundred people who, uh, just all they did was fill each of these pockets in that quilt with this. Well, I can’t remember what they call it, but this kind of methyl cellulose, it’s, uh, kind of, uh, used to thicken up milkshakes actually.

Yeah, does methyl cellulose dye, different shades of red and purple and stuff. And then they had a whole bunch of these blankets, and of course the methyl cellulose would start to seep through the silk so that it, you know, it was kind of covered in this. And so you couldn’t tell that these were blankets or whatever at all.

Uh, So they would just kinda layer these kind of over each other, have puppeteers under them. They said it, they weighed like 200 pounds cuz you know, oh, it’s just filled with this crap. And then the puppeteers had mittens on that were sort of like big and blobby too, so that, you know, their fingers aren’t poking through this and they’d just be under there, like moving it around and, and doing the stuff.

Some of these scenes were very elaborate and you can find some great behind the scenes shots online of, uh, of some of the better ones. Um, there’s a scene where this woman gets, gets crushed in his phone booth. That is unbelievable. 

Craig: Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. And it’s such a cool effect and it made me sad because it’s not sad, but it’s so fast.

Yes. Like I, I wanted to pause it frame by frame cuz it happens so quickly, but it looks so 

Todd: cool. And the blob at one point gets down into the sewer. So, so the blob, you know, this guy’s got the blob on his hand. The old guy. Yeah. And there’s the bad boy, the bad boy’s name. Dylan, 

Craig: Kevin Dillon. That’s hilarious.

Kevin Dillon looks like he’s like the most badass. Longhaired, 15 year old you’ve ever met. . He’s 

Todd: got this, his huge curly mullet down 

the, 

Craig: it’s a wig. He and Shawnee Smith were both wearing wigs, . Oh, it’s so eighties. And he wears a leather jacket and he rides motorcycles. Oh, Uhhuh. . It’s Ke and it’s Kevin 

Todd: Dillon.

Oh, . The minute his first shot, you know, he’s the bad guy because he’s the eighties bad guy. He’s smoking, dumps a beer on the ground that he just finished drinking. He’s got the leather jacket, the long hair, and drives the motorcycle. You, you basically checked all the boxes for the bad boy. Hilarious. 

Craig: Yeah.

He’s so funny. And you know, like, you know that he, even though you don’t yet know that Paul is gonna get eaten by the blob right away, you just know that. Brian and Meg are destined to be together. Stupid. Paul . 

Todd: Paul never had a chance. . 

Craig: No, he never had a chance. I love it. So Brian, Kevin, Dylan is just kind of chasing this old man.

I don’t even really understand why. Like did he also happen to see the meteor or he saw that the old man was struggling? I don’t 

Todd: know. I 

Craig: don’t remember. But all the kids end up together taking the old man to the hospital and they do. And there’s a hilarious scene where the nurses totally ignoring them and then just asks about insurance.

And I don’t know why that was so funny to me. Like I laughed out loud when she was like, now how may I help you? We’ve had a car accident. This guy needs to see a doctor. He has something on his hand too. Some kind of acid or something. , does he have Blue Cross? I don’t know. Medical insurance of any kind.

Like . I have not died. Oh God. So funny. But then, uh, like nobody will see the old man or whatever. Uh, no doctor, cuz there’s only one doctor in the whole hospital and he’s very busy talking to some woman in his office. . 

Todd: Uh, so this is the shittiest hospital in the world, by the way. This is terrible. One doctor, one nurse.

Nobody cares about anything. They’re, they seem bothered by this. The, the nurse 

Craig: is a total bitch. Yeah. . . 

Todd: Paul sees through the window, uh, into hi this old man’s room that there’s odd movement underneath his, under his blanket. I loved that. Oh God, it was so good. And when he walked, it’s so creepy 

Craig: Right towards him.

Well, right. I mean, even just the movement under the blanket, like, cuz you know what’s going on, but, oh, yeah. Because you can’t see anything. It’s super spooky. And yeah, that’s one of the things that I actually like better about this remake than the original, is that they did more, you know, in the original, it’s really just kind of a blob that 

Todd: slithers around penises a little bit.

Craig: Yeah. Kind of like jumps on you sometimes, 

Todd: you know, 

Craig: walk fast. You’ll probably be, 

Todd: you’re gonna be fine, right? . 

Craig: But in this one it’s really creepy and it, it, on more than one occasion, it like, gets inside somebody’s body. Oh yeah. And, and you can see it moving around under the skin and like making the body move.

And that happens here. Like it, first of all, it totally dissolves the whole like from the waist down. The old man, oh god, it so gross. Yes. Um, but also it’s like under his skin and his face, and you can see it under his cheeks and his eyes are all white and, uh, super, super creepy and that it happens again later and the effects are great.

One of the things that I, I, I think it’s a happy accident, you know, you, you said that they decided, okay, so this is like an inside out stomach, so it’s acidic and it dissolves everything. That’s kind of the only thing that they could come to an agreement on. Like even while the movie was being made, they really weren’t entirely clear Yes.

On what the rules for the blob were. Like, there are no rules for this blob. No. What is it? What can it do? Um, and I like that because it’s different in different scenarios. Like sometimes it’s just this, you know, like melting jello that can come under doors and stuff, but sometimes it’s fully active, almost like the thing Oh yeah.

Um, can shoot out, shoot out tentacles and, and, and form itself into like a big gaping mouth. It does all of this. And, and they had considered using cgi, but ultimately decided that the technology wasn’t advanced enough yet, which they were probably right. Oh, yeah. Um, and so, uh, they ended up doing it all practical, and it looks practical and it’s so good.

Like, honestly, if, uh, if you’re a fan of horror, and especially if you’re a fan of, uh, practical effects, you have to watch this. , it’s an assignment and it’s not extra 

Todd: credit. , you must and write a, write a 10 page report and, and post it to us

Craig: Uh, but yeah, the effects are so good. And so then like right after it kills the old man, um, what’s his name? Paul runs to call the police. He gets on the phone and you’re looking at him and the door that he just came through is open and it slowly starts to swing clothes behind him. And you see that the blob, which is great big now, is uh, on the wall behind him.

Um, and then as he’s talking on the phone, stuff starts dripping on the desk and it’s like eating away at the desk like it’s acidic. And at the very end of his phone call, he looks up and there’s the blob up there on the thing, and it drops down on him and he screams. And when Meg hears him screaming, she runs in there.

And this is like the box art. Oh, like, like the blob like com, he’s completely covered by it. And it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s almost like the blob is pulling his face back and, and pulling his skull scalp back as it’s, uh, dissolving him and he’s screaming and still moving. And, and I read that, you know, like sometimes this was a, a, like a dummy, but some of the time it was really him under.

that gelatinous, whatever it was. And I, and I guess that for the actor, it was pretty miserable. Like he couldn’t breathe under there, obviously. Yeah. So anytime that was on his face, he was basically suffocating. But it looks so good, . 

Todd: And it’s even, you know, there’s just a bit of comedy there too. Like, he’s reaching out to her and she grabs his hands and as it’s the blob is kind of pulling him away from her, suddenly his arm comes off.

Yeah. She flies backwards with his arm. Oh, it’s so good. . And it’s gross. Yeah. And it looks very convincing and disgusting. And it’s funny, you know, it’s just, yeah. The notion of, it’s hilarious, but it is gross. 

Craig: That’s why I’m saying like, in many ways it feels very kid friendly. But these effects are, are gruesome.

Yes. Um, I mean these, these people are being, Digested, basically. Uh, and, and you can see it. So their skin is melting away and becoming really sal and like pulling away from their bones and stuff. And like, uh, you know, the blob just keeps going around and it gets bigger and bigger. And they had consider in the original movie, the Blob is pink.

In this movie, they considered changing it to green. I don’t know why I love the pink. They decided to stick with the pink because when it first comes out of the comet, it’s clear, it just kinda looks like Vaseline or something. Um, but it, as it absorbs people, it becomes pink because of the blood, which makes sense.

And yeah, I love it, but it keeps getting, uh, bigger and bigger. . One thing, the only thing that I didn’t understand about the movie is this. It’s in the hospital, but then the next people in attacks are out of town. Yeah, , like, I think like, uh, like a, like lover’s bluff or whatever. Oh God. And, and, and I really like this scene.

I really do like the scene, but like the blob came all the way from the hospital, way the hell out there . And then after it kills them, it’s like, oh no, it’s getting in the sewer and going to town. Like it was already in town. I don’t , that’s the only part I don’t understand. But it’s okay cuz I love. 

Todd: Scene

My interpretation is that there’s still a little bit of the blob back at the meteor that’s kind of like slinking around somewhere out in the woods. I could be, well this the douchey guy, like we are calling him Steve, right? He’s got a g a girl parked and I also did a double take care that the girl he is got parked as Erica aac, 

Craig: she was familiar, but I didn’t look her 

Todd: up.

What was she in One of her very first film roles? She was o on Baywatch. Um, I remember her as the girl from Under Siege. Okay. I had a bit of a crush on her in the, in the early nineties actually. So, . Yeah. She posts for Playboy and all that. That might add something to do with it. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah, she’s in the back, you know, and there’s his typical make out and he gets out of the car to go to the back of the trunk.

Oh. He’s like, oh, but he’s pushing her to have sex. Right? Right. He’s like, oh, you know, you’re wearing my ring and all that, you know, you’re my girl. He goes, you want another, you want something else to drink? She’s like, yeah. He goes to the truck, opens it up. He has a whole mini bar back there that was hilarious.

With mixers and stuff. He, I mean, he pours a half a cup full of granite eat. I don’t know how good this drink’s gonna be, but splashes little vodka there and then pulls out like a hand mixer and mixes it up. . Oh 

Craig: my God. That was so funny. And the, the other thing that I loved about this scene is meanwhile, We’re getting POV shots from the blob.

Yeah. coming through the tall grass. Yes. And I feel like that happens maybe one or two more times, but that’s great. It, it was so, it was so funny and like not only do you see it like coming through the grass towards the car, but then you see it kind of going up into, cuz he left his door open. Mm-hmm.

funny. Then he goes back in and again, this dates the movie because I don’t think anybody would do this. Uh, not, they wouldn’t film this today. Um, but he gets in and he thinks that she’s passed out drunk and so he’s going to take advantage 

Todd: of her while he’s talking to himself. Yeah. 

Craig: Talking to himself. No, it’s so, and it’s so long.

It’s How does his dog out there tonight? Vicky? It’s uh, it’s a nice blouse.

nice material. Must be hot though, huh? Yeah, I, I’ll just do one of these for you. Ah, it’s better, huh? Oh, no. Oh, well, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll do another one then.

Okay.

Oh. Energy one, 

Todd: like, come on. It’s, it’s really belabored,

Craig: It’s disgusting and hilarious. And then he, like, he goes to Kapa feel, and I’m typing the notes before it even happens. You know what’s gonna ha Like he goes to Kapa feel, and of course the blob grabs him and then her body is like in, you know, completely obsessed. The blob is inside it and it, it turns towards him.

And then like implodes her 

Todd: face, caves in it’s crazy. looks great, it looks 

Craig: great, it looks 

Todd: wonderful. And that’s when like tentacles come out of her face and stuff and wrap around. Yeah. Looks like. . 

Craig: Yeah, it can totally do a tentacle thing. Yeah. Yeah. , 

Todd: he got what was coming to him and then, I don’t know, 

Craig: like there’s a whole lot more plot.

Like the blob goes back to town, it comes to the restaurant, they’re in the diner, everybody knows and like it sucks a guy into a pipe and . Well, 

Todd: the best part, you can’t just, you can’t just brush over that pipe. One though. That was shocking. . I love it. And you know it’s coming from a mile away. Uhhuh. . That’s the great thing about the movie is that it sets it up so deliciously, so you’re just full of anticipation.

What’s gonna happen to this guy ? The dishwashing sink in the back of this diner is clogged and so the owner gal walks out while the last guy there, you know, finishing up washing the dishes, has a plunger and he can’t plunge it. So then he starts, it’s like, oh, this is weird. He reaches his hand down in there, it grabs his hand and pulls him through there.

And before you know it, his whole head . He’s just completely yanked down this tiny drain. It pulls this whole 

Craig: body down. Yes. Because they, the people come in and see it, and it’s like pulling his boots. , it’s, 

Todd: you, you, you know, you describe it. If you put that on paper, I would’ve just been like, oh, come on.

Like, there’s no way this is gonna work. Right. This is so unrealistic. But the way they film it and the way they do the effects, it’s, it’s 

Craig: pretty good. . It’s fun. It’s stupid, but it’s really, really fun to watch. It really is. And you know, the, the diner lady is screaming, and I really liked her and I was sad she died.

She’s the one that dies in the phone booth. But I lo it’s so great, like the blob, like completely, you know, envelopes the, the phone booth that she’s in. So it’s, you know, On all sides. And she’s holding the door with her foot and she’s on the phone to the police station and she says, please, please send the sheriff, cuz they’ve been like, flirty or whatever.

And uh, the lady on the other end of the phone is like, he’s not here. He went to the restaurant and she looks over and the blob like, shows her like, like the sheriff’s body is all decomposed in it and like, it like, gets plastered up against , dragged 

Todd: up the 

Craig: glass. Oh. And it’s, I mean, it’s, it’s so obviously like, uh, um, a dummy, you know, it’s, it’s kind of a drop, but, but it looks great.

Like it looks, the only reason I say obvious is, Having been partially digested, it’s really deformed. Yeah. Like his, his mouth is really messed up and it, like, his jaw looks like it’s broken. The teeth aren’t where they’re supposed to be. That’s the only reason, that’s the only reason I say it’s obvious. It looks fantastic.

Todd: Yeah. That shocked me. I, I, I did a double take at that as well. I could not believe the sheriff was dead. Me too. Just like Paul, they spent a good quarter of the movie, if not a third of the movie, really setting these people up for being our heroes and just like that, with no warning whatsoever and no fanfare.

Boom, 

Craig: they’re dead. Well, and him, they had set up him and Fran, the diner lady is like this romantic Yes. You know, deal. So I thought, you know, that they were gonna have this, you know, romantic, happy ending noop. They both bite it. She, the, the, the blob eventually just kind of like implodes the. Phone booth and, and like I said, we already mentioned it, but it, it’s so fast, but she’s just like crushed in there.

And, and you see her, you see her being crushed. It’s not like the glass breaks and it cuts away. Like you, you, you see her body and head being crushed for a split 

Todd: second. They had a full size phone booth for this, and they had a articulated mannequin in there for her for that, that that scene. And then they basically literally did just crush the phone booth on all sides.

They had these hydraulic, you know, compressor guns that just boom, just shoved everything all in there at once. And you see it top down, you see it a little bit from inside and you, but then you see it from top down and it just looks brutal. 

Craig: Yeah. Ugh. And, and it looks, it’s, it’s so fast, but at the same time it’s seamless, like mm-hmm.

You don’t have time to register that it’s now a dummy. It just, it just works really well. Um, and then the blob continues to go around. There’s the famous, uh, theater scene, which is really fun here. Like there, you know, all these people are in the theater watching a slasher. 

Todd: Did you recognize the projectionist?

He looks familiar. Who was it? He was one of the two, um, lackeys of the Bad Guy in Nail Vira movie. 

Craig: Oh, no, I didn’t recognize him. He did look familiar though. Yeah. Uh, and there’s tons of people who look familiar in this. There’s also this Dr. Meadows, who is like in charge of the. team that’s coming in to contain this.

Mm-hmm. . And we find out, and this is different than the original two. In the original, the blob is an alien from outer space. Um, in this movie we find out that it’s actually like a, uh, a weapon, like a biological warfare type deal that was, uh, yeah. Created by the United States government. And the thing that crashed in their town wasn’t a meteor, it was a satellite.

Todd: Yeah, A satellite or whatever. Yeah. It was a satellite that, uh, yeah. They’d had it up in a satellite, circling around, exposed, I don’t know, to the air, whatever, to see what the germs would do up in space and whatnot. And yeah, it came crashing down. Yeah. Well, 

Craig: he’s the leader of this, Dr. Meadows. This is an older black gentleman, so familiar, and he’s been in a bazillion things.

Um, I remember him very specifically, A very special episode of the Golden Girls , where he was a friend of Sophia’s, but he had Alzheimer’s disease and he forgot her. And it was a very special episode and he was really good in it. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned that I’m a huge Golden Girls 

Todd: fan. Only about a dozen times.

Yeah, . 

Craig: Okay. I just wanted to just put it out there. One of the greatest shows ever. And, and he played a very sad Alzheimer’s man. 

Todd: Joe Seneca , Joe Seneca. He died 1996. Just, just, uh, oh yeah. Just a less than 10 years after this movie. Just 

Craig: a bum. You, but he’s good. And, and you know, he plays the good corrupt military guy.

You know, eventually, uh, Brian, Kevin Dylan, you know, overhears him saying that they, you know, their top priority is containing. The blob and the citizens of the town are expendable. Don’t care about them. Yeah. So, so now Brian, you know, has to save the whole town. Now here’s the other thing. Okay, so then there’s this, I don’t know, a bunch of other happens, people get killed, whatever.

Now the blob is great big and it’s chased people out of the theater and it’s chasing them down the street, like towards towns hall. And this is like the Godzilla moment where it’s the big monster and it’s chasing everybody and the military’s there and they’re shooting it with machine guns and nothing is working.

And it’s like overturning cars and there’s explosions and all this stuff. And it gets, um, everybody into like town hall and Shawny, like this one military guy. They’re all in like hazmat suits. The military guys, one of them shoots at it with a flame thrower and the flames don’t have any effect on it, but the blob shoots out a tentacle into the barrel.

Of the flame 

Todd: thrower, 

Craig: so that it explodes and sets this guy on fire. Shawnee Smith, who is the real hero of this movie, um, sees this guy on fire and grabs a fire extinguisher and puts him out drawing the attention of the blob, which then goes to attack her and having nothing else at her disposal. She shoots it with the, uh, fire extinguisher.

Fire extinguisher. Yep. And it recoils so she realizes that it’s the extreme cold that it can’t handle. Then we immediately cut to Brian stealing. A artificial snow maker. 

Todd: Yeah, . How did he know? Oh, that was set up earlier. Remember when he came because of the refrigerator thing? When he came by to, um, early in the, in the movie when he tries to jump, uh, when we’re first introduced to him, he tries to jump a jump with his motorcycle and fails and breaks it, leaves it in the woods.

And then he comes back into his buddy at the mechanic shop, um, and asks him for, uh, his ratchet set, remember? And the dude in the mechanic shop happens to mention, oh yeah, well, you know, you better bring it back. Cuz I got two of these big snow machines that I, uh, I’ve gotta repair because the town, and again, they, they make a mention of this a couple times early on in the movie that it’s a skiing town and it’s pretty soon, oh, the snow, the snow people are gonna be in for the, uh, in their, and so he even pulls a couple beers out of the snow that they’ve gotten the snow maker.

But, uh, yeah, it’s kind of a blinking, you miss it kind of thing. I looked at and I was like, having seen the original, having known that cold is the thing. Right? I was like, all right, well clearly that snow machine’s gonna be coming in soon. . 

Craig: Yeah. I mean, he drives it into the town and like crashes it like, like he drives it directly into the blob.

I don’t know what his, I don’t know what his plan was, right? I don’t think he 

Todd: really thought that through. He’s trying to blast it with snow, but he kind of gets out control and just get over pretty fast. 

Craig: And this is when, you know, there’s lots of blob on cars and trucks and it’s obvious that these are like toy cars and stuff.

It’s still super fun. But, um, when he crashes the truck, uh, I was gonna say Shawnee Smith, Meg sees and she comes out to help him and somehow. . God, I don’t even, what does she 

Todd: do? She, she gets onto the liquid nitrogen canister, right? And sticks a bomb. And they have like these little bomb things in there, but as she leaps off of it, her foot gets caught.

So she’s hanging off by the side and it’s up to, uh, uh, Brian to come over. That part was so funny to 

Craig: me because she’s on this is on a street and she’s on top of this tanker that’s overturned of like liquid nitrogen or whatever she knows, dives off of it. Like, yes. What, what was she, what was she thinking was going to happen?

Like, thank God she was tangled up in that cord. Right. That’s why she would’ve just face planted right on the pavement. , 

Todd: you’re absolutely right. . But anyway, 

Craig: Brian comes and like, gets her foot out and uh, the liquid nitrogen tank explodes and immediately like freezes and calcifies the blob. And it’s, you know, just all these 

Todd: tiny bits, crystal.

Yeah. Which 

Craig: is different. I, I, I actually liked in, in the original that like, it just froze whole and then they airlifted it by a helicopter to the Arctic. Yes. I love, I love that. I love that ending. This one’s a little bit anti-climactic 

Todd: with a big, uh, with a big animated question mark at the end. Yes. The 

Craig: end question.

Mark . I love that. 

Todd: Del Close who played the priest in this one. Yeah. Um, who we barely mentioned, but kind of comes in here at the end. He is a comedic actor, and he has been in Chicago, well, he’s, he’s not alive anymore, but he had been in Chicago for most of his career training. Dan Akroyd, Chris Farley, John Farrow, John Belushi, Gilda Rad.

I mean, Tina, Faye, the list goes on. Um, this man was basically, uh, a coach for comedians. John Candy, Steven Colbert, . Mm-hmm. , bill Murray. Like all these people, like, um, you know, he was basically their teacher and uh, he was talking about the original. He was quite convinced that the original was a metaphor for the Red Scare, which was going on at that time.

Mm-hmm. , big red blob comes through, um, and then at the end of the movie, they, the red scare or this threat of communism or whatever, never goes away. Right. It just, uh, it just, uh, lingers. So you, you can’t kill it. You just have to drop it off at the Arctic, but it’s always in danger of being reborn and thought out again later in the future.

Right. ? Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . This movie, I don’t think tries to make those kind of political points, but it does end on a more ambiguous note. 

Craig: That’s what I was gonna ask you. It’s inter, it’s, it’s ironic that you brought up this Reverend Meeker, because that’s what I was gonna ask you about, because they say, oh, we better get it in the freezer before dawn, or something like, okay, whatever.

Um mm-hmm. . But then this guy, this priest who’s just kind of been like, wandering around the whole movie like. Casually observing the blob. Like, oh, there it is again. Like weird. Um, here at the ends, like he’s been hurt. Somehow he’s been burned or something on one side of his face. So after like, it seems like the movie’s over, then there’s another scene which like, yeah.

A religious revival. Is that him? Yes, that him. Okay. I I, I thought so. But he looks different. Like he, he’s taken off his clerical collar. He’s got long hair. He’s all sweaty and weird. Yeah. The only his face is messed up. Yeah. And so his wounds have healed, but he’s scarred. I thought it was him. I just wasn’t sure.

And he’s like leading this religious revival. And then he goes back, like into the back of the tent, like in the, his private area. And a lady comes back and she’s like, when Reverend,

the day of. How far

Todd: the Lord will give 

Craig: me a sign and he holds up a jar that’s got a piece of the thaw out living blob in it. Like he’s one day gonna release it for the day of reckoning or whatever. Yeah. That was so weird. That was so random. Such a weird ending. 

Todd: Yeah. I mean, it, it’s, it’s a little a jarring, right? I, the, the, he gets those pieces.

He somehow ends up at the diner, um, shortly after the couple leaves and they had retreated into a, like the, the, the refrigerator? Yeah, the refrigerator. So the blob had tried to kind of come under the fridge, but then it did a bit of a retreat. Right. Um, but I guess during its retreat, little few bits of it crystallized and the priest came through and just saw the aftermath of all this and looked on the ground and was interested enough in these tiny little pink.

Crystals or whatever, that he picked them up and put ’em into a jar, knowing not at all what they were or what it was about or anything. And then you’re right, you don’t see him again for any of the rest of the movie. Maybe pops up once or twice. He’s 

Craig: there at like in the big finale in the street. He’s there.

I think that’s, but he doesn’t, I, I feel like he never even interacts with any of the other characters. Like he’s just hanging 

Todd: around all the time in the rampaging scene, he’s like ranting and raving like, oh, the end of the world is ni oh, this is a sign from God or whatever. So it feels like they just kind of tried to shoehorn that in.

Yeah. As kind of a shock. Gotcha. Ending by throwing a little bit of that in there. I, I, Ika was kind of under the impression based on the fact that his eye was milky white and the side of his face was kind of messed up and scarred that maybe some of the blob had gotten into him. Maybe, maybe controlling him a little bit.

I don’t know. I don’t 

Craig: know is, I don’t know. But ultimately, I like this movie. It’s cute. I don’t love it. Oh, love it. Like I, I loved it, . I don’t love it. I think it’s fine. I think it’s fun. I think it’s a really fun movie. And it’s not boring. It moves pretty fast. There’s so much about it. Like the, so many, so much of the story, so many of the scenes are really campy and I’m here for it, like good like that, but not fun.

This is an old school monster movie, and I, I, I’m down 

Todd: and yet not overly campy, right? Not like, I, I mean, I thought it was just the right amount. I mean, 

Craig: it was, it’s just tongue in cheek, right? Yeah. Like it’s, it’s, it’s not over the top stupid that which, which is fine too, you know, in, in some circumstances.

But this isn’t that. It’s, yeah, you’re right. It’s not that over the top. It’s more tongue in cheek. Tongue in cheek wink, wink. But they play it pretty straight. Well, 

Todd: Chuck Russell, the director of this, came right off of Nightmare Elm Street, three Dream Warriors. Yeah. Frank Derban had a, had a hand in writing as well, and so, you know, it’s got a little bit of that in it.

He went on from that to do the mask and a, a few other things. So like, he kind of went off. I don’t know why I, as I was watching this movie, I just kept thinking about the fly too. It felt like it had a little bit of that same vibe to it. Hmm. And Dare Bond actually wrote, uh, wrote the screenplay for that as well.

But yeah, I just felt it had a similar kind of feel. And I mean, I know you love the fly too, but I think that’s also because you have one Oh, 

Craig: that’s nostalgia. Yeah, that’s not nostalgia. 

Todd: Quality . I thought this movie was way more entertaining and I think this movie works as a action movie really more. I mean, there’s cool action scenes in here too.

Yeah. Where they’re in the sewer and she’s dangling and it’s, it’s trying to get her, then she falls in and she’s gotta escape. I love it that this guy inexplicably has his motorcycle in the sewer . Oh, the motorcycle 

Craig: in the sewer scene was the best. I can’t believe I forgot about that. Oh my god. There’s a whole motorcycle stunt where he has to like ride up on the side of the.

Tunnel to get past the blob. Oh, that was fantastic. I’m so glad you 

Todd: remembered to bring it up. . It’s great. Also, I love movie sewers, like they’re enormous. Somebody needs to give me the tour of a sewer, uh, of a very small town like this one and convince me that it’s giant and cavernous everywhere. Right.

Craig: Like with like 15 foot high ceilings. Sure, sure. 

Todd: Huge pipes just, and all the water’s clear and there’s not a. had a single bit of waste floating around in there,

Craig: That was great. You’re right. It’s a good movie, . It’s a good remake. I, I, I say that this is one where the remake was justified. Uh, yes. And I, I think that it was done right at the right time. You know, the, the late eighties right before cgi, I took over the world because, you know, this could be remade with CGI and probably will be at, at some point, and I’ll reserve judgment.

Who knows? You know, they, people can do great things with cgi, but I feel like this, um, was made right at the right time. It’s, it’s a great callback to the, to the story of the. But even more so, the style of the original and other movies like this, these B monster movies that were drive-in Fair, Matine, afa, you know, for our dad’s generation.

Oh yeah. I mean, yeah, just a, an excellent callback that really, really, for me, it really works. I, I don’t think it’s a masterpiece, but it really works 

Todd: for me. Oh, I just thought it was fun from start to finish for a lot of different reasons. The slight campiness, the tongue and cheek humor, the, the throwback to the fifties, the great special effects, the action and the surprises that they threw into the plot.

Yeah, totally subverting your expectations at moment. I mean, there was a lot of thought that went into the writing of this movie and. It followed a trend of the times. I think they were remaking a lot of old monster movies at this time. I think the thing came out about five or six years before this, um, the fly remake was around this time, the stuff, you know, which is very similar to The Blob.

Yeah. Which is a couple years before this. So like, uh, it was definitely following a trend and I’m kind of surprised that it didn’t do as well at the box office. It was very disappointing. And I think that the explanation that the filmmakers have is just, it was a tough summer. Like they were up against a lot of other big movies and, uh, Tristar whatever didn’t end up investing too much into, um, advertising for it.

So it kind of got buried. Mm-hmm. , it didn’t even make back its whole budget. I think it’s budget. I don’t know. The budget’s hard to nail down. Like in IMDB it just says 10 million, but I’ve read that it was at least 20 million and, and half of that was simply special effects. Um, but it didn’t even make back, uh, eight, I think million, uh, on box office.

So bit, bit, bit of a disappointment, but apparently the VHS cover art propelled it forward and it did quite well on home video and rentals. . 

Craig: Oh, I vividly, I so vividly remember that cover. Oh, yeah. In, in the video store. Yeah. It was, I mean, it’s simple. It’s just, you know, one frame from the movie, but, but the best frame one.

One of the 

Todd: best ones, yeah. , it was great. All right. Well, thank you again for listening to another episode. If you enjoyed it, please share it with the French Find us online. Two guys in a Chainsaw podcast is all you need to Google to get our Twitter page, our Facebook page, and our patreon patreon.com/chainsaw podcast.

Please consider, uh, becoming a fan of the show of Patron. Spend a little bit of money, uh, every month and get access to a bunch of extra features. We do a couple mini sos every month. Write up some reviews, uh, do a lot of behind the scenes discussion, and as in this month, we pull our patrons and they’re the ones who really shape the show and tell us what requests we’re going to decide to do, and in this case, especially what theme month we’re gonna do, so we actually have more remakes coming for you throughout the rest of February.

Until next time, I’m Todd. And I’m Craig with Two Guys and a Chainsaw.