Jack H. Harris enjoyed tremendous success with 1958's THE BLOB. Reportedly, distributors demanded a sequel from him, and television executives tried to make him develop a TV series based on the film! A sequel, of sorts, did come along in the early 70's. Directed by Larry Hagman, BEWARE! THE BLOB! (aka SON OF BLOB/SON OF THE BLOB), had some good moments but was largely stymied by it's lack of knowing what direction it wanted to go in. It couldn't seem to decide if it wanted to be a monster movie or a spoof of monster movies. It did sport a rather incredible cast, however.
In the 80's, with new technologies in special effects allowing for some possibilities before undreamed of, Harris produced a remake of his most famous film. As the original had been the quintessential 50's monster movie, the remake was likely hoped to define it's generation in the same way. While the remake is a pretty good movie, it's not exactly the greatest monster movie the decade offered. It's actually the human drama that's the most compelling thing we see, as the monster stuff lacks the quite menace and realism of the original picture. The first few reels are pretty good, as we meet some of the townsfolk and peek into their lives. As in the original version, a meteor falls outside of town and an old hermit investigates -getting a deadly glop from the center of the meteor fastened to his hand. Soon, of course, the Blob is oozing about town and dissolving human beings left and right. Then the authorities show up and the film becomes more a remake of THE CRAZIES with CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER as a guest star.
Again, the human drama here is pretty good (and thus I won't really go into it in the hopes you'll see if for yourself), but it's the effects which are supposed to be the real star. Problem is, while competent, the effects really lack the effectiveness of those seen in the film they're copying. In one sense, kudos must be given for trying something different than what had come before. However, they didn't learn as much from the original as they should have. The original Blob, a blood-red mass that silently oozed through town and absorbed those hapless enough to be in the same room with it, is replaced by a snotty pink goo that lashes out with tentacles and makes monster noises. Not seeing what exactly happened to the victims of the original Blob made the implications all the scarier. This new version focuses mostly on how the victims of the monster are dissolved alive, or in other cases are apparently mutated to death by the Blob infecting them... Okay, that might not be what's supposed to be happening, but it sure looks that way a time or two. It's also worth noting that, for all it's expensive technologies used to realize it, the new Blob is never as realistic -and therefore as menacing- as the cheap effect of dye in silicone jelly used thirty years previous. Had the film not sold itself as a remake of an earlier, much-heralded effort, but instead passed itself off as a new movie altogether, the results might've been more beneficial. The same year saw KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE also building itself on the framework of the original Blob movie to slightly better effect. It obviously didn't pass itself off as a direct remake, and thus came off a lot fresher.
I don't want to give the impression that THE BLOB is a total dog or anything. It's actually quite good, and might be considered one of the better monster movies of the 80's were it not up against some pretty stiff competition. It was pretty intentionally designed for adults, though, so keep the kiddies away.
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