The Blob (1958)

For Halloween week, five days of classic horror movie reviews!

The Blob (1958) – Classic ‘50s science fiction horror film about a monster from outer space attacking a small town.

Director Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.                                                      Starring-Steve McQueen

Why I Liked It-Good old-fashioned horror movie where no one believes the teenagers.

A meteor crashes outside a small town. Out of it crawls a blog of alien flesh that consumes any living animal it finds. Discovered by a group of teens, they try to warn the town but the grownups won’t listen. Until they have to.

This is as a classic ‘50s genre movie as you will ever find. The cast is mostly overage actors (McQueen was 27) playing teenagers with the naïve “gee-whiz” personalities that were soon to disappear from the screen. There’s the obligatory “those darn kids” adult along with plenty of local adults who just want the youngsters to “settle down now”. There’s not an unpredictable moment in the entire movie.

Yet it remains a lot of fun along the way. Don’t over-think this one. Science gets fractured severely along the way. Who cares? It’s worth the ride just to watch the actor who will portray some great “anti-hero” characters of the 1960s play an Andy Hardy-esque role here. The blob itself is a perfect enemy. Unstoppable, indestructible and appearing to be unthinking. The effects for the monster are pretty cool and hold up reasonably well.

It’s filled with strange but fun little things. McQueen smoked all the time, including during shooting. You can catch smoke coming from behind him in some scenes where he is hiding his cigarette. Ed McMahon does a voiceover for a movie within the movie. And the theme song is hysterical. Co-written by Burt Bacharach, it has the cheerful pop sensibility of his most popular work. Which makes it an utterly bizarre choice for a sci-fi/horror movie. Plus a frightening connection to contemporary news right at the end.

Sixty plus years later, the movie remains classic grab-some-popcorn viewing. Would love to see this one on a big screen someday.

Rating – *** Worth A Look