A small bubble of jelly tumbles dramatically from the sky, landing in the woods just outside Main Street USA, and swiftly begins absorbing and digesting the town's population. Naturally, the only ones to understand this predicament are a small tribe of no-good teenagers, and the crusty old grown-ups don't listen to a word until it's almost too late.
It's a classic sci-fi trope, from the heart of Hollywood's cheap, silly, sci-fi boom, and that's always fun to watch... to a certain extent. After jumping right in with a first-scene asteroid crash, though, The Blob loses its way fairly quickly, dragging its feet through all manner of slow, dry, window-gazing scenes while the monster gets busy somewhere decidedly off-screen.
The attraction is a blob of man-eating goo, but the film seems more concerned with the history of kid-cop-parent relations in this sleepy little borough. It drags on forever, until it's suddenly time to wrap things up and then we rush through all the good stuff in a quick, delirious blur. It's in that quick, vibrant sprint that we enjoy all the best shots - a stampede to escape the theater, a fully-engulfed diner - but they're mere glances, and none seem blessed with the right amount of gravitas.
The history books tell us that this was never intended to be a hallmark of the genre, and that much is clear. The studio didn't think much of it because, apart from a brilliant title and a far-leftfield concept, there really isn't all that much to think about. It's an empty, abrupt, stupid, yet inexplicably magnetic, time capsule. A short, simple novelty at the best of times.
I prefer the 1988 version but gotta appreciate the original. The 58 film tends to drag a bit, very few on screen kills. However, stays relevant to more current landscape when if finishes with dialogue along the lines of it’s stopped if the arctic stays cold and the end font turning into a question mark.
Review by whitsbrainVIP 5BlockedParent2022-01-15T17:36:01Z
When I was a wee lad of about 8 years old, I was terrified of the scene when the Blob latches onto the old man's hand. That old man really sold the pain.
Upon my latest re-watch, I noticed that this has just about the cutest dog I've ever seen. The little guy is smarter than all of the humans put together. Steve McQueen tries to pull off a teenager when he is clearly in his late 20s or maybe even 30.
The blob effect is really cool but it does suffer from scale problems. It is always in isolated shots. No one is ever shown near it. There is a matte painting that shows it engulfing a diner but it's one of the worst I've ever seen.
I wonder what the Blob actually is? It's alien, but how did it get inside the meteor? Was the meteor some sort of egg? Could it have wormed it's way into the meteor and then hollowed it out? Was it cast into space after some collision? Is it a bio-weapon from a malevolent force somewhere in the galaxy? Geez...who knows. It's kind of neat that none of those questions are answered or even really asked.