225: The Blob (1958 vs 1988)

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This ain't your grandpappy's blob. Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. There's nobody in here but us monsters. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack. A total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Totally killer. Pun intended.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with the perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast, and this week I'm joined by the super fly space guy Mac.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Hola, Chachos.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

And the cowardly creeper Ryan. Hiya. This week we're unpacking a classic 1958 film and the remake treatment it received 30 years later. Now, in 1958, audiences were introduced to a sci-fi horror film starring Steve McQueen in his first feature film leading role. It's a big deal. Now, while it originally premiered as a B film and a double feature, audience reception actually quickly moved it to main feature status, even though the critics weren't that fond of it. Thirty years later, producer Jack H. Harris from the original film teamed up with a group of filmmakers armed with a budget 80 times the original and a desire to revamp the 50s classic. Now, while it panned out to be a box office failure upon its initial release, it has since grown a cult following. Both versions of the film explore what happens to a small American town when a mysterious life form crashes on Earth and begins to consume everyone it touches. This week we're talking about both versions of the blob. Who's seen either of these movies before?

SPEAKER_03 1:40

I'm gonna jump ahead of Mac here because I'm assuming the sci-fi guy has seen these movies. I, of course, have not. I feel like I know of the blob, and in my head I relate it to the thing, probably just on title alone, but I hadn't seen either, of course.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

I am going to surprise you here because I had not seen either of these movies until just now.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Oh, you're a fraud. Get the hell out of here, really.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

This was this was legit my first time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Broadening my horizons.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Ooh, I love this for you. What that this is growth, really. Especially when you came in saying that uh they made two films about you. I really thought you had had a personal connection to this.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Very true. Very true. I mean, they got the name right in everything.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Look at that. I have not seen the 80s version at all, ever, but I have seen parts of the 1958 version. It's one of those that came on in the background uh while we were like watching, you know, old movies like uh on Turner Classic movies, we were watching some old school stuff. I know that my siblings have had this on in the background. While I haven't had a really deep connection to it, I feel like I understood the general gist of it, so I never really saw it more. And I think going into this, when considering both of these movies side by side, I was like, well, if this is if this movie's gonna 50s, the 80s is certainly gonna 80s. And I expected it to be a complete like ramp up and just over-exaggeration. And taking the things in the 50s that were more reliant on tension and like the innocence of of people, right? And and thinking about like what would be scary to our imaginations or what is a thing that would be inconceivable. But then in the 80s, it felt like, okay, no, we're gonna show you that. We're gonna show you what we didn't show you in the 50s. So I was expecting a lot more gore.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

I mean, I think that's the safe expectation. I kind of thought we were gonna get like a very specific, like same line for same line remake with the with the 80s one. And you know, it's kind of surprising how similar but different it is. And then obviously for the 50s, I did not expect to enjoy it because it is rare that anything was enjoyable as far as horror in the 50s. And that's just my opinion. I know it's not for everybody, but I just don't enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Chris, I think you summed it up well. Like I expected the 50s to be 50s and the 80s to be 80s and all that kind of stuff. But in general, I thought I was gonna get into just a really super cheesy B movie here in both counts. I thought the 50s was gonna be ridiculous, poorly made, just really grindhouse B movie, and I expected the 80s version, like you said, to be like 10,000 times gorier. I I thought there was gonna be just like needless amounts of blood and gore just because it was 1988.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

How did it feel though to you when you finally got like to sink your teeth into the blob?

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Gosh, my expectations were completely wrong.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yeah, um I was pleasantly, pleasantly shocked by all of that. Like when watching them, I found the story to be straightforward enough to be able to enjoy it in the 50s version. Did not realize it had Steve McQueen in it. That was kind of exciting to see. Um, I felt like the straightforward story really helped because we're talking about a blob and you don't want anything too complex, you know, going on there with a blob from space or whatever. So um I think that really helped because it didn't seem like a super cheesy B movie. It actually seemed like like a good high-quality B movie. And when I got to the 88, it didn't feel it didn't feel so gory that I would hate it. There was obviously added gore, and that's okay. It it I think it did enough to differentiate itself, you know, from three decades earlier, and that's cool. Um, but I think it did it in a way that actually seemed not family friendly, but more like classic material. It it seemed like a 1980s movie uh attempt at something where, hey, we want people 30 years from now to look fondly on this movie just like we look fondly at 1958.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

So for me, again, in the theme of like the thing, I was expecting the 80s movie has to have some great effects, but I've never really heard anyone be like, hey man, the the effects from the blob 1988 are like the best effects ever. So I was a little worried. I was like, this is what it needs, and I don't know if it gets it. And I was very, very, very happy to see that the treatment of this movie and the blob in the 80s is so nice. It is um a vast improvement from literally a blob of something in the 50s that we saw on screen. And that was the thing for me while I was, you know, watching the one from the 50s. It just it it was just like I couldn't be less scared of this. And the whole time I was thinking, I don't really know how to pretend like this is a scary thing when it is just a goo. The only thing that was scary is that they uh the people just kind of vaporized, you know.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Listen, if you work in retail long enough, any goo is suspicious and and frightening, right? Like sometimes I'll be seeing things and places and I'm like, I don't know what that is, and I don't want to be anywhere near it. So the 50s one for me felt charming. It felt nostalgic. It felt like, okay, this is just a kind of competent run all the way through. And it felt like a good time. It was one of those that like it's it's so much in a time capsule that it's hard to, I think, personally connect with a lot of the things that are happening, or even a lot of the, you know, it loses a great deal of like relatability. But in the 80s, what I appreciated and and what I found myself feeling the most was that okay, we're gonna take the blob. We're obviously gonna 80s it up, right? We're gonna add some really intense core, we're gonna really jazz up the effects quite a bit. And of course, it feels so much like a product of its time. But what felt different was the way that they approach some characters. Like this is a movie that felt like, okay, if you like the blob in the 50s and you want to see something that's cool but different, if you don't want more of the exact same, this is gonna be something where we're gonna try to do things specifically for you to surprise you. And that felt really, really effective.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Yeah, I I think my biggest surprise with the 80s one was again, I kind of already touched on this, but like how similar but also very different the stories were. And honestly, I think it was like one of the more impressive, similar remake plot lines that I've seen, but with like just enough changes, and you didn't really like like I didn't miss anything from the original, like the certain certain character things or plot things that happen. And that was a big surprise for me.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

That is a big surprise, Ryan, especially when you consider just what is a elapse in American history between 1958 and 1988, right? I could have been born two years before the blob came out, and then like I would have lived like my exact life up until now and just experienced so much political change, or like what was going on in the world and how many wars we're involved in, etc. And to think about even like the civil rights movement and to think about just the way that America was shaped in the span of the 30 years between these two movies come out, and then to see the themes that are wrapped up in the 1988 version with like government conspiracy. So in the in 1958, it's like, okay, there's a thing that's here, it's weird. We don't know what to do with it, we just want people to take it seriously. And then in the 1988 version, there's a layer of sinister applied to it. It's not just enough to be afraid of this thing, it's almost like we had to be afraid of each other, too.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Yeah, and I feel like in the 58 one, it's almost like, forgive me, because I haven't actually watched that much Twilight Zone, but I've always had this perception that like Twilight Zone are these little isolated stories in this little place, and this movie feels like the blob feels like this isolated thing in this small place that doesn't have enough resources to deal with it in in the 58 version, and so it's just so different from like the government sent people here and they're in fancy suits with lights on their head, you know. I don't know, it's it's a very interesting thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

I I think the difference between the two is probably the most surprising for the 88. I think, like you mentioned, there's some character stuff that they just completely flip on its head on purpose, and it made it more 80s for sure, but it also I think had to update it somehow because oddly enough things cycle through, the 58 version I feel like would have done really well several decades later, and the 88 version would have done really well in like 2001. Like if they made the 88 version in 2001 with it, like, hey, we need to flip some characters on their heads, we need to have like the bad boy this time, we need to have the strong female character. That those themes would have worked so well had they made this film in 2001. I think the thing that surprised me about the 58 version is that you know we didn't need this giant crazy thing on screen. I know that it it probably bored you a little bit to not have that, but I think it was mostly just about like characters and fear and a wrapping around xenophobia. Um, but I think it it worked well enough by keeping it like small scale. And I worry, you know, I worry with B movies. Like if you don't go big enough, it's gonna look bad. But if you go too big when you don't have the ability to do it, it looks like a giant ant on screen. Um and I don't want to see that. That's silly. So I think they hit like a good middle mark there of like we have something visually interesting, we didn't go too big, we don't you know we're not too big for our britches here. Um and I was pleasantly surprised by that.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Yeah, being too big for your britches is such a danger. You have to take big swings if you want to get big hits, and sometimes you just it's like a it's like a big whiff. You put in all this effort and then you completely miss your shot. I think for the most part, both of these movies took swings at things and that I didn't mind, and I think it was largely I think they were both largely successful at most of what they tried to do. But there is a disappointment that I have that feels really petty, and this isn't a serious knock, but it is something that like just bothered me the entire runtime of the 1988 version, and that is Kevin Dillon. Kevin Dillon, who plays Brian Flagg, who's one of the main characters in the 1988 version, let me tell you how in my like sick off of work from a week stupor, I not only watch shark video uh movies, but I also watch some like natural disasters or some like action movies. And Kevin Dillon is in a movie called Poseidon about a cruise ship on New Year's Eve that gets taken over by a rogue wave and is thrust upside down, and he's just like an asshole gambler who's like his name is like lucky so-and-so, and he's just a dick the whole movie. I'm sure he's been in other things, I'm sure he's a fine actor, but I couldn't watch this movie and then not see that. It just really messed me up.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

I feel like he plays a lot of douches. Like he they they typecast him as as Mr. Douche sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

The question is, does he play those roles because it is his authentic self or because he's so opposite of that that he can play that on screen?

SPEAKER_00 12:32

That is a great question. I mean, I don't I don't know. You know, is he really Tom Hanks? Maybe, maybe in reality he's like one of the nicest human beings. We don't know. I haven't looked it up, I haven't Googled that. I did not find the concept of a giant blob, however, to be scary whatsoever in either film. I always find these kind of things to be a little bit a little bit ridiculous. I mean, you know, if a giant blob was slowly moving through a city, I feel like we could just be like, okay, let's slowly move away from it and just escape it before it tries to eat us.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

Okay, so Max Wrong. This blob in 1988 is scary, mostly because it's not really a blob. It's like a thing. It's like an ex existing life organ. The one in 58, not scary at all, but like the one in 88, it's scary.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Okay. Does it change things for you to know that the movie was originally supposed to be called The Glob? No, that's worse. More scary or less scary?

SPEAKER_03 13:33

Less scary. Glob is like uh that it feels medical to me for some reason.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Like a like a glob of gel or disgusting things.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

I don't know. It doesn't do anything for me. Blob is fine. I'm fine with blob, but the first one feels like a literal blob rolling down the street. And it's like, can't we just derail it? Like, can't we just give it a direction to roll and like let it keep going? Can't we just put up some construction zones and just hope it gets stuck? Right, exactly. A little ramp, push it one way. But at least in '88, I I think that this feels like a scary thing. The kills get a little crazy, it's a little scary. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

The glob also sounds like a Rob Schneider film from 1998. Oh. Rob Schneider in The Glob.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Ugh. I don't know what it is. That's gross though. I don't I don't like that one bit. I would think if you asked me in 2019, is the blob scary? And I'd say, yeah, that's terrifying. You have this gigantic thing. Imagine being on the east coast, and let's say somewhere on the west coast, this thing lands. You start hearing these little reports about this, and it's like, oh, there's just like this weird thing. It's like a blob, it's just eating things. And let's just say like people just don't forget, like, don't stumble upon a solution to intervene or to stop it. And then let's say a few days later, this thing has now made it as far as Texas. And then it just starts creeping closer and closer. And then you wonder, oh, wait, what are we doing here? Like this thing is going in places, right? It's not like something that you can just lock down and um say, okay, I'm just gonna like stay home and I'm gonna be safe from the blob. So in theory, it's it's it can be it can be scary. It's like a this weird life form. But then you go through everything we've been through in the last couple years, and I'm just like, all right, guys, I mean I got nothing else to fear but general incompetence, uh, really all around. So I think I'm good. I think this is this isn't as scary. I will say the gore, though. I think the potential of these movies and the gore in the 80s does make it a little bit spooky.

SPEAKER_03 15:35

Yes, and then we have to have the conversation. Are are these original? They're not particularly different from any small town monsters there. Everybody has to run and hide from it. I mean, we literally get like a movie theater scene, which I feel like we've seen several times. I'm like real iffy. I'm only giving this like a little bit of originality at points, but it doesn't feel like a lot.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Okay. Um, I feel like it's a very similar plot point to many invasion stories that were around probably before the 50s. The entire time I was watching the 58 version, I was thinking of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, um, especially with like the landing and then the opening and then the goop coming out and all that kind of stuff. Um, so like it's it's hard for me because I just feel like it's it's just like a type of sci-fi film and comic and like book that was just out and about for like decades. I think the concept executed on screen is probably very different, perhaps, you know, because we finally get to see it realized in in a very specific way. So like maybe it gets some points. Um, I think the 1988 version, like it does a lot more work to seem original, especially with what it does with some of its characters, but it's not quite there because a lot of the stuff that it does, it's just like making it of the times, and so it seems like other 80s movies.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

This feels like a sci-fi trope. Is it a sci-fi trope?

SPEAKER_00 17:01

A hundred percent. Okay. I mean, almost all these all these kind of things have to deal with like xenophobia, basically. So um, yeah, I mean it's it's kind of a trope.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

So it's obviously a staple within sci-fi, absolutely, but there is something still so distinct about the 1958 blob film, rather, that uh it stands out to me. And I'm not mad at that. And I think generally when we assess old versus new movies, it's like assessing the originality and okay, what direction did the remake try to go? Did it pull a Rob Zombie Halloween, or did it pull a psycho from the 90s, and you just like a beat-for-beat recreation of an original film, except maybe you add Vince Vaughn pleasuring himself in an office, right? Like that's the only difference in those two movies. So I think what this movie did was stay true to the core of what the blob is, modernize it in a really smart way for its time and its modern audience at that point. And then it also pulled some tricks out of its bag to keep things interesting, to keep things a little spicy. And it also added some moments that were, I wouldn't say like super emotional or touching, but it does add a little bit more of that emotion. Whereas in the 1958, it felt like more of a collective, we have to be afraid of this thing or concern about this thing because oh my gosh, how weird is this. Whereas it got a little bit more personal in the 80s. And so I think the difference in its approach, I can really applaud the 80s version for distinguishing itself in that way and not just taking the same blob and making it bigger.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Yeah, I mean, I'll give it credit for that. I think they they did some work to make it to make the two different, they're distinct films. Um, you know, we get into some remakes where it's obvious that they wanted to remake it to reboot it or to make more money off of the idea, or simply because somebody liked it and thought they could do it better. And I think this one, like you mentioned, like it pays homage to the first one. It spices things up a little bit, not too much. They didn't go too crazy with it, they didn't pull a Rob Zombie on it and you know tell us about like the the blob's like childhood or anything like that. You know, we didn't need to know about the emotions of the blob and the trauma it experienced. But um I think I think it it worked well enough. The ending, maybe, yeah, maybe it's tropeworthy, maybe it goes back to a lot of other sci-fi films, but I found the ending to be really effective, and I think it worked in both films, except except for the 1988. I think the ending was like doing real well, and then we get to a final scene, and then I was like, you kind of you miss the mark with the final scene.

SPEAKER_03 19:36

I totally agree, and part of it probably comes because we know what happens in the end of the 58 one, so we kind of know like what has to happen, and there's something that happens at the end of 88, and you're like, well, I guess we're not done here, and we kind of should have been done, but we just keep going a little bit, like I already know where we're getting to. It's just we took a couple left turns along the way, and it's it's actually odd. The ending of the original 58 one is way more successful to me than the newer one. It's it's like so much more emotional, so much more climactic. It's a it's an interesting change up there.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Also, how great would it be if we had a 2022 not remake but sequel to the 58 version because of global warming?

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Oh my gosh, yeah. That's one of the things to consider when you get through the plot progression of the 50s, and you think, okay, what would this story look like now? You'd be fucked completely. It's like, what shred of hope can you have uh in considering the world in the way it is right now? I thought the ending for both films was were were strong. I do prefer the 50s ending though, and I think that's something that we can get into a little bit in terms of like how its characters connect with each other, and we can explore, you know, because of the difference in tone in these films, what could they treat or what could they prioritize in the original ending versus a remake ending? And I think when you play that different of a game, you have to kind of you have to come out to a different outcome. You can't do what you did in the 80s version and then still get the same benefits of the 50s ending. And I think they both stand well on their own two legs, but I think I do have the preference for the 50s ending at least, but we'll see how our our opinions on these endings and throughout each of these films impact their individual ratings. But for now, let's make our way there. Ryan, how many people died in these films?

SPEAKER_03 21:27

So we have a pretty good body count. The original gets 13, the remake gets 34, which is 47 in total. And what about the animal report? And the animal report is pretty good this week.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings then. Starting with the blob 1958. Was it a hacker or slash?

SPEAKER_03 21:45

So I know that I'm often here talking trash about old movies, but they're just hard. Okay. I love James Bond movies, I love old 60s movies, but I don't often think that they're good, and that's part I don't feel like I can relate to them. I don't feel like they're visually interesting usually unless it's just like a beach and hot people. And that's kind of where the James Bond bit comes in. And for me, this just doesn't do anything. I that I could not be less interested in the blob of goo, and I could not be less interested in the story or the people. This is all a bit isolated. It just doesn't feel like anything I can relate to. I'll just keep it simple. It's a hack for me.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Alright, for the 1958 version, I give it a slash. I found it enjoyable. I was pleasantly surprised. I think I was expecting bad cinematography, bad effects. I thought it was gonna look really just bad on the screen, but honestly, it looked good. Um, it looked pretty smooth. I liked it. I think the characters did their jobs, nothing special, nothing to write home about. Steve McQueen executed exactly as we needed to execute. It kind of seems like you mentioned like a just a good episode of a TV show. And it's the kind of thing that I'm really into. Thus I enjoyed it. It is a bit of a slow burn, not a problem for me because I like slow burns, but for many people it's probably a bit too slow for modern standards. Overall, I think if you're gonna watch some classic B movies, you should add this to the list.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Yeah, I'm right there with you, Mac. The 1958 version is a slash for me. This movie is inoffensive, it's easy, uh, it's very palatable. I have one thing that I would hack in this movie, and it is Steve McQueen uh playing a 17-year-old as a 28-year-old who looks like a 38-year-old. That's weird. But beyond that, this movie is a good time. It's simple, it's approachable. It's okay, let's watch a movie where a group of people try to band together. It feels very young teenage hijinks. For some reason, I was getting rebel without a cause energy, and that's not really a fair comparison at all. Very different films. That's just me being nostalgic and me being stuck in my and my love of cinema from the past. It also goes, I think, to the simplicity of like looking back on this time of like, okay, thinking about where we were and thinking about how innocence is framed and how sinister of a thing could you conjure up in your mind. This is the worst you could imagine, and I think that's so interesting. I thought the progression of the blob, I thought the aesthetic of the blob, I thought the look of the blob was solid. Again, I'm the kind of person who likes the simplicity though. Now, as for the 1988 version, there's a lot in this movie that I wasn't crazy about. Namely, with a hell of a time I had being distracted by one of the main characters. But as I mentioned earlier, it does a lot to take big swings, and on most of those things it delivers, primarily the blob itself. This is a movie that made not only an enemy scary, but the enemy of my enemy is still my enemy and not necessarily my friend. It really, I think, does well to pick up on a themes of the time and think about like this underlying insidious paranoia that kind of dwelled in most people and applied that as a really thin layer uh on top of the like the central conflict of the story. I think this is a great example of taking something and modernizing it 30 years later versus just trying to do a rinse and repeat altogether. So for its swings in a in an attempt to be a little bit more original and distinguish itself while still paying reverence and still having nods to the past, I give that a slash as well.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

So this movie is very 80s and it's definitely not perfect. I mean, the first set of dialogue that we get is trash, it is so unrealistic. Someone literally says, when, when, when out loud. A thing you've never said to anyone ever. And so I didn't go in with high hopes. I didn't like the first one, but I found that the effects in this movie for the blob are so freaking good. The monster hits, literally and figuratively. The kills hit. The characters are so secondary, the story is so secondary. However, the other thing that hits is the small changes that they made and the moments where you think you know exactly what's gonna happen, and it's just slightly different. Just slightly, not much, just enough to keep you interested in the story. And I think it's done so well for a remake, it's very hard, I think, to either completely change a remake or to not change a remake at all. Neither of those feel very good. This is a really good in-between for me, and the blob is the thing that gets me. It sucks me in, literally. So it's a slash for me. This is what I would say that Max said before, which is if you want to watch a good B movie, put this on. It's like a good time. It's not perfect, it's not amazing character and dialogue-wise, and there's some there's some cringy things that happen, but it's it's quite good and quite enjoyable to watch.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

I'm also gonna give this a slash. I think for a lot of the reasons both of you have talked about it being good. But um Kevin Dillon's character is probably one of the most unnecessary parts of this film. I think that Shawnee Smith's character could have done way more if they had given her the space to expand. Um, and I and I'm really glad that they made the change for this film to be more about her than you know a replacement for Steve McQueen. I think it was a it was a great move. Um, but I found it to be an entertaining film. I think the effects were insane considering this was before modern CGI. And this is why practical effects are just better, because you can make a B movie in 1988 with practical effects that show a blob of just like gelatinous crap moving around, and it looks so much better than if you did the same thing 30 or 40 years later. And that's insane to me that we still haven't quite nailed it. It just it's entertaining, it looks cool to see a giant blob um like rolling around the screen, you know. I mean, I don't know why that is, but I sat there on an afternoon and watched both of these films, and I didn't feel bored and I didn't like regret my time. I think it's just kind of like a fun fill-a-big popcorn bowl up kind of a watch.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Yeah, that sounds dangerously close to fun for the whole family energy, like Paris thought nope was.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

Honestly, though, it does kind of have that energy.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Yeah, I wouldn't mind watching this in a triple feature with Nope. I think that's a really good point to make, though, Mac, because I watched both of these movies late at night and I thought, okay, I'm clearly not going to be able to do this. I'm gonna be able to do one movie, maybe I'll start the other, pause, and then like I'll restart it the next day. And I found that the 50s version was so easy going and smooth going down that the 80s version was like a really nice bookend for it. It starts out with you know a little bit of a fake out that I deeply appreciated, and then the excitement that builds the tension that builds the direction and being able to assess both compare one right one right after the other. This really was a solid double feature.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

It really was. I think both of these would earn a place on a projector. This is the kind of thing you could easily like sit in your backyard and drink some beers and eat some popcorn and have the fam out and watch and have a good horror night.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

Well, you can launch both of these films up for your next horror night because as of right now, the blob from 1958 has earned two slashes and one hack while its remake in 1988 has earned a universal slash. You can find both of these movies available for rent or purchase online, so go check it out. And then join us in the second half so we can dissect these blobs together. See you in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

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SPEAKER_01 30:45

Now, the original has earned one hack and two slashes, while the 80s remake earned a universal slash. Now we have a lot to get to here, but before we get into the specifics of why we rated these movies the way we did, we had the matter of gore to attend to.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

The goo did a good job, though. I mean, the goo on the guy's arm, that was pretty grotesque.

SPEAKER_03 31:16

Yeah, it definitely looked like like it was like burning, eating, that kind of thing. So that was a good part of that. The 1988 version, though, absolutely got a good bit of gore there. And we got like different kinds of gore. We we kind of got people getting sucked into things, body parts getting like burned off. We got all kinds of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Yeah, I think I like the play where in the first movie we have, you know, this this guy's arm covered by this goo, and then in the uh in the remake here, we get a guy's arm ripped out uh from the goo because it's softened all of his tissues.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Oh my gosh. The goo the goo period is gross, but to see the stark difference in how that man in particular was was disrespected by the blob by the goo, absolutely disgusting. I didn't expect it to go as hard as it did, and obviously that sets the tone for the rest of the movie.

SPEAKER_03 32:10

Yes, and it was quite enjoyable. But to go back to 58, what were your favorite kills?

SPEAKER_01 32:16

Alright, so I'm gonna go with Dr. Hallan. Dr. Hallen is one only because A, you think, okay, he takes it seriously, he's trying to go get his gun, you know, rest in peace to the nurse who really couldn't make it out of that situation alive. But it was the drama in which we see him go. And it's like, okay, this is someone who saw what was happening. This is obviously their hope, right? They're they're thinking we have someone on our side, someone in our corner, and then that hope is extinguished right before his very eyes. And that obviously sets, you know, sets into play, you know, is anyone gonna realize that he's gone? Everyone thinks that he's just out of there in the first place. So it's the the drama in which he dies, and then the fact that no one will accept that he's dead, except for our main characters, which was wild to me.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

It was pretty wild. I think that was a major portion of that movie was them just trying to like convince other people. The dude is actually dead, and we saw it happen, or at least we saw like the after effect of it happening. I think the impressive part of that was like the speed with which the blob took him out and took the nurse out. And we didn't have to see it on screen, I think we just knew what was we knew what was going on. But like I feel like he just got into the same room with it, and it operated with the same speed as the 1988's blob. Like it was it was quick. I'm not sure how it did it, but it but it did it. I think my favorite kill uh also happened with speed, and that was the projectionist in the movie theater, because the blob just kind of like jumped up at him, like, what's up, buddy? And then hugged him and he was gone. And and I and I like that because it showed a little bit more sentience to the blob.

SPEAKER_03 33:55

You know what? The best part about the 58 blob is that once he consumed somebody, they were just gone. There was no trace, there was nothing. He just came in for a hug and then evaporated you. Yeah, no paper trail. This guy knows what's he knows and knows what he's doing, right? Right, and I'd say that's like a little bit creepier than than all the stuff that was left behind, you know, from 88. But in in the original, my favorite kill is actually like the original kill, which is the guy that, you know, has his arm being eaten, consumed, whatever you'd call it. I just like th the way it starts, and it seems like, you know, not like a huge deal. I mean, obviously he's not okay, but not like the biggest deal. And then things get crazy and then he's gone. Rest in peace. So, what about 88? What are the best kills?

SPEAKER_01 34:43

So for me, it was the first one that we see that's not consistent with the previous movie. So you get start this movie with the old man, and then you think that Paul character uh Paul might be our Steve McQueen. Granted, I know that we see Brian um you know in interacting with some of the other characters, he's kind of painted in a different light in the beginning of the story. But I think initially you expect that Paul is gonna be our guy. For sure. So the suddenness with which he goes, this blob just falling onto him, and then to see how deformed his face is, oh, the arm being gone, like he's genuinely melted by this blob. It was so disgusting. And that was a moment where you know, obviously, we get the the same old man dying in the beginning of this movie. That those effects were great. Paul's effects reminded me of the thing. That was like the the greatness that I saw in that moment.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

That was such a sudden kill, and I didn't honestly believe it when I was watching it because they do play it off like he's gonna be there until the end. And like for it to fall on him, I thought maybe they're gonna show him getting away from it, but they very quickly like just said no, like he's gone. This dude's melted, and when she went in to grab the arm, I thought maybe she can pull him out of it, like it hasn't completely consumed him yet. And that arm just ripped off, just like shredded off from the goochis melting it. I was like, oh, this is game over. This is a very different kind of blob than we might imagine. I I loved it.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

Is that your grandpappy's blob? And for sure that kill hit the best because we weren't expecting it. We knew he was the guy, and then he wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

Speaking of the guy, my favorite kill is George in the kitchen getting pulled into the kitchen drain. Um, that was nuts. That was a completely insane kill, and I loved it because it wasn't quick. Like, you know, Paul's death was was pretty quick, but George is like it's pulling him piece by piece, and it's jamming him down this drain as he's going, and there's just like blood all over the place. And it is kind of comical to like to be sucked down a kitchen drain. Like that, it's it's kind of hilarious as you're watching it, but it's sick and gross, and I love it.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

But also, like the best thing is that kill could have looked horrible, it could have been so corny, and honestly, that's one where I'm like, I'm not even sure how the special effects worked here. Like, I don't know how they made this look so real without CGI and everything. That one was really good. My personal favorite was Fran and the phone booth because it was such a cool, like, top view that we end with. Obviously, we have so much tension building up where she's being it engulfed in the slime, the blob. And I loved it. And again, it's another one that stood out to me is like, this looks so realistic. How do they pull this off? This doesn't look like the special effects of like Nightmare on Elm Street, where things are like, this is nonsense, this looks so goofy. It looks amazing, and honestly, a lot of these kills are so good. The only time the effects were like a little off for me was towards the end, like on the street when things got like really big. But with that being said, I have a few small things. There is a lot out there for visual effects with the 1988 blob, but I think a few things that were really interesting to me that I think I kind of figured, but it's cool to see them confirmed. A lot of these effects and these scenes were shot in miniature, including like Fran and the phone booth. And for miniature, I don't think anything looks odd. Nothing looks off. So it was done super good. I love that. And then basically, the the other things that are really cool is the blob was the hardest part. Basically, everybody who was making this movie was like, Yeah, the blob in 58 sucked. It wasn't scary. And the problem is it's really hard to make a cool, scary blob on film. So they ended up mostly using like a bunch of different structures that were covered in like a silk that also oozed, and then like pockets of like different materials and all kinds of stuff. Basically, there was a bunch of people that worked on this blob thing all day, every day during shooting, of course, and they all just went home covered in in slime every single day. Basically, these people were getting slimed every day, but they were also like inside of a structure trying to make something creepy and walk down the street and eat people and all kinds of stuff. But it's very, very interesting. If you're like a nerdy special effects person, you might really enjoy looking it deeper into this movie.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

You gotta wonder which one's worse. Coming home covered in sly because of that, or coming home covered in lube because you worked in an alien.

SPEAKER_03 39:21

Yeah, probably lube is worse. No thanks. So obviously, in 1988, my absolute favorite visual is the blob. I love all the different like shapes and forms that it takes, and I think that's what makes it the most successful because in 58 it was just so simple. It was literally just like a blob rolling down the street. So for me, definitely my favorite visual in '88 is the blob. I have a small, like random favorite one, which is also the government hazmat suit, guys, because they have like the most the classic shady government hazmat suit thing where it's like dark and they have like the little light. And I don't know, is this exact same suit in other sci-fi movies because it seems so familiar? Is it in Stranger Things or something? I don't know. They I feel like I've seen these dudes before, but that's like my second little small thing. And I'll be honest visually, I don't have a ton from 58 that I loved, except like the cars.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

The cards are great. I think they were probably one of the most beautiful parts of the movie uh as objects, but I think the color from 1958 was my favorite part. I did not expect it. You know, there's black and white movies that come out after this this film, um, but I think the color seemed rich enough to where it wasn't boring. A lot of 58 and earlier films, I feel like you get some of that like muted look sometimes, um, which is nice. Like it seems kind of smooth and everything, but I feel like this this movie had some richness to it. I think the blob, the work that they did, like it it was helped by the fact that it seemed pretty vivid.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

Yeah, I think you're right on the money there with the like the vividness, the the color and the richness of the 1958 version in particular. Obviously, there are some bright bold colors in the remake, but one of the moments that I loved so much in terms of just the aesthetic of the 1958 version, specifically the silhouettes of the trees with a meteor crashing down. And on its face, does that look like the most technically proficient or competent shot? No, absolutely not. It's like it looks like it's a combination of a few different elements, perhaps some you know, some matte paintings, etc. But there's something so beautiful about that need for that style of production that I absolutely loved, and it looked very romantic. Not in like a strictly romantic because they're on a date in this spot, right? But in a wow, how would you not fall in love with filmmaking in that moment? Like it just it's very brief, but I love that. I think that's a great example of the colors that you're that you're explaining. The other element that I love is Ryan, I'm right there with you, the blob. I think the 1958 blob was satisfying to me, but I like the differences that we have in the 1988 version. I do also love, especially when you think about that foam booth situation, where you have you know that moment where she sees the sheriff uh floating by, realizing, oh my god, he's gone. You think again, another character you're that you're expecting to make it to the end of the movie, and he's gone so quickly because he was going to check on her specifically. I do also appreciate in a really silly way that the blob reminds me a little bit of Pepto Bismol, right? Like you look at a lot of images that we have of the blob against some glass, and it looks like someone just poured Pepto Bismol down the glass.

SPEAKER_03 42:42

It it is I I can understand that relation for sure. It's kind of like that.

SPEAKER_00 42:47

I do appreciate in the eight version we get a nice sense of that like semi-opaqueness of it. Like we know it's like a thick, gelatinous substance, and you know, in the in the 58, you don't really see through it enough to know what's inside. Like we don't maybe nothing's inside, right? But in 88, we know that there's skeletal remains inside of it. We can see the faces being melted, and I think one of my favorite things about 88 visually was the effects of the blob melting people because it wasn't just like consuming them, and we get that idea in 58, but it was legit like acid on their skin, and so when it starts to take people out, it was really interesting to see it like fizzle, you know, on a human body. I I think that was just a great addition.

SPEAKER_03 43:32

Yeah, there were some notes about like why they specifically went that route instead of just not why, but like them choosing to specifically go that route rather than just having the blob kind of like consuming people. It was like a physical, like an acid burn kind of thing. And I do think that was a lot more effective.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

In thinking about the scenes for both movies that I absolutely love, it's when we first make contact with the blob. It seems innocent enough. It seems very okay, what is this thing? Why A, why would you touch it? Sure. But to see in the beginning when it just kind of like comes up on this man's hand and then it's slowly, slowly getting worse. I love both of those moments in each movie because it really starts the timer for how quickly everybody's gonna fall. Obviously, it moves, I think, a little bit slower in the 1958 version, but that was such a great moment of discovery. It does so well to bring all the characters into the right spot to say, okay, this is something weird going on that we don't quite understand. But then to use that as a catalyst for like a red herring, like everybody's assuming that Brian had something to do with it, and to see the differences in how everybody responds, especially in the 1988 version, where of course, looking at the differences and how time has evolved, and the nurse is just saying, Does he have blue cross medical insurance of any kind? Fucking hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 45:00

Yeah, the 88 was definitely ahead of its time in like several aspects. Uh, one, the huge government conspiracy to weaponize something. I absolutely loved that. But the insurance thing, that little crack like really made me laugh. I think there were some some kind of funny parts to each movie that that I enjoyed. And I feel like you need a little bit of that in every horror movie. You need a little bit of lightness to balance out what's going on. And I think my favorite scenes are those. So in the 58, we have the street racing thing. Um, and it was just like silly, and I think that's why I think that's why I liked it. Because we get to see our our characters completely removed from whatever's going to go on later on, and and that's okay. You need some of that. We need some some building, we need to know who they are, and I think that was great. You know, we get uh Steve, played by Steve, um, and like just like trying to defend himself against the cop. This is such a small town that street racing is not that big of a deal. Also, the cops were so incompetent, it was kind of hilarious. And you know, I think that the cops in the 88 version at least were a little bit more competent. But the humor in the 88 version that I really enjoyed was was the whole like pharmacist being the girl's dad thing, like that whole sequence of events where you know it's like the guy goes to buy the condoms, he says they're for his friend, you know, that he's getting judged for it, then the friend actually goes to pick up the pharmacist's daughter, and you know, he assumes that he's trying to sleep with his daughter. So like that whole setup is apparently ages old and comes from you know urban myth or legend or whatever, which is kind of funny, but it just seemed like a good depiction of just an old joke. And I think every now and then that adds some lightness to a movie that I enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

I love, especially in that moment when they're talking about um the condoms and you know, they're working with the pharmacist, and he's like, the boy doesn't need condoms, he needs a muzzle.

SPEAKER_03 46:51

Yeah, you can uh you can call that a classic joke, or you can call it just like some bad writing, like bad characters, like when he's in the back and he's like, Come on, I can't keep this girl waiting. Like, God bless. So I have struggled, but I found a favorite, a favorite scene in the 1958 version. And you'll have to forgive me because I can't think of exactly what her relationship was. But it was like the doctor's assistant, the older woman that comes down, and and she is so sure of everything that she's saying. And to be fair, she's not wrong. Like she doesn't know she's wrong. Everything she's saying is right. And by golly, when you only have house phones and and uh you can only call the hotel once someone gets somewhere, there's not really any way to prove any of these things wrong. But she was just so surefire and and just so confident in everything she was saying. I thought it was lovely. That was like a little bit of funny, funny uh comedy that I that I took out of the first one. So I enjoyed that scene a lot. I think it was the perfect thing to throw everybody off the case, although, you know, uh the kids could have explained a little bit more of what happened because they just kept going, something's wrong, and no one said, Hey, I saw him in the window, and then he was gone. And also, I brought this man here who seemed to have some sort of disease. No one mentioned that for like a very long time. So that maybe would have helped. But that that was my favorite, the little spicy old lady from the 58 version. And in 1988, it's kind of cheating because it is technically a kill, but my favorite part is when we realize Paul's not gonna be our guy. When Paul gets killed, it is like a twist. And before this scene, before basically before they hit the man with the car, it does seem like a different movie. It's not the same. So you're kind of just like, okay, well, we're just, you know, I mean, we're in a small town, but well, you know, we got this bad dude, we got some cops, whatever. And then we realize, oh, this guy's bad, it's perfect because he replaces the bad kids from the first one, and the cop doesn't like him. And it, you know, it all set kind of starts to line up, and then Paul dies, and you're like, where are we going from here? And I just love it. I think it was the perfect, perfect balance.

SPEAKER_01 49:07

You know, that moment, that realization that Paul isn't our guy, was such a welcome departure for me. I just wish someone else had been our guy, except for Brian. Granted, looking at the character that we have, Meg, who is much more like the Steve McQueen replacement for this movie, and she's more active. I can appreciate that departure. I just could not get behind or get into Brian by any stretch of the imagination. And maybe that is just a Kevin Dillon thing. Maybe it's just like a recency bias thing. Maybe it's a I don't like this actor, and so I wouldn't have liked any. I would, you know, maybe I would have liked this character if someone else played him. And that's really silly, and not something to discredit the movie for at all. But I love what they did with the focus on Meg. I love that she didn't bite the bullet when Paul did, and I love that Paul wasn't there to necessarily weigh her down. I got a little bit of a weird energy between the two of them. Like, all right, I don't see this going very far in this relationship. Like, blob aside, if the blob wasn't there to intervene, I don't think they would have had a second date. That's just my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 50:15

Yeah, I think Meg is going off to college and Paul is forever going to be stuck at 18 years old.

SPEAKER_03 50:22

You know, I think that's probably exactly right, but isn't it better than being 28 and being stuck at 18 years old, literally as Steve McQueen?

SPEAKER_01 50:31

Absolutely. I will just get that part out of the way then. That is my worst part of the 1958 version. You don't have to sell them as a 17-year-old, they could have been young adults, right? They did not have to be teenagers. Being teenagers added nothing to the movie aside from like, we're not gonna take you seriously, but I still feel like remove them being at home. Okay. Well, granted, I guess her being at home, having a little brother, it had some emotional pull to the movie. I get it. I think they still could have been young adults and had families who still cared about them while being single and all that stuff. I just don't think their age specifically added any value to the movie.

SPEAKER_03 51:11

But also, like you said before, it's not just that he is 28, it's that he looks 40. Okay, it's just so weird. But honestly, I I have to be very simple about this. I don't like any characters in either of these movies. The best characters we get are the two boys that are just nonsense in the 88 version, and they're like in the theater. And and that's about it. I I don't like any of them. I don't like doctors, I don't like cops, I don't like the the girls or the guys. I don't like anyone. None of these people did anything for me. If the blob wasn't good in '88, the movie would have sucked because the characters suck. Sometimes they're funny, but they're not good.

SPEAKER_01 52:00

Or it's great that the characters suck because then you get to see them get sucked up into the blob and you're rooting for the blob. That's fine. I'll take that.

SPEAKER_03 52:07

The you know, you know the best character in these movies? The blob. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 52:12

You're not wrong. We see a lot of growth. I mean, honestly, did anyone develop as much, uh, literally and figuratively? As much as the blob did? No. Ya boy showed up microscopic, a really small organism, and then grew massive and didn't let anything stop him or get in his way. He was slowed down, but nevertheless he persisted. Ya boy is uh really just resilient.

SPEAKER_03 52:37

The blob put in work. He did his thing. Everyone else hated it.

SPEAKER_00 52:42

I think if we just look at how they set up each film, that's kind of interesting. I mean, the 58 version is such a classic, strong leading male actor, female actor that's like there for the ride, but doesn't really add much because we won't let her add anything. And I love that the 58 had just like our typical cops that are not really gonna help out with much. Until until we let them at the very end, they can kind of they can kind of be useful, but they're doofuses basically for the entire film. Um it's just like like a vanilla way of having a cast. I think the the 88 version spiced things up. I love, I just think they should have given Meg more. I think get rid of Brian, like let Meg blossom, and that would have been so much more interesting. I I get what they were doing with Brian's character, trying to like let him be the bad boy or whatever. I just don't look at Kevin Dylan in this and think, like, that's that's a bad boy right there. You know what I mean? Like I don't I don't see it. I don't see him having tattoos and you know flicking cigarette butts around. Like it just he just looks like he does a pose at one point where he leans up against a building to hide from the sheriff, and it just looks like he's posing. Even like the care it looks like the character himself is posing, not even the actor. And it's just like, oh, so you're just try hard.

SPEAKER_03 53:55

Side note, I thought that the poster that's behind him when he leans against that wall was the thing, and I got like super excited about it, but it's not. Sadly. It could be, but it's not.

SPEAKER_00 54:05

That would have been a delightful little Easter egg for sure.

SPEAKER_03 54:07

So since I have to say a best part for the 1958 version, I actually think it's not that hard, and I'm gonna go with the ending. I think the end of 1958 is good, it's unexpected, it is uh full of emotions because you have everybody kind of trapped in this building that's on fire, and you know, they kind of just give in at some point, they're just kind of like, right? Well, uh it's been nice knowing you. We enjoyed that date one time, that was a great time, but we're done here. And it doesn't end up that way. And I think it's clever to realize the freezing thing. I hadn't realized it at that point already. I didn't put two and two together with a walk-in freezer, and I I I really enjoyed it, and it was interesting having to have everyone come together, kind of fight the fire, but actually be fighting the monster. I love the ending of the first one, it's so good.

SPEAKER_01 54:59

No, the ending is so good. Uh obviously, the worst part of the 1958 version is Stephen Queen looking 38 when he's 28, playing an 18-year-old, 17-year-old, whatever. But I'll do an additional layer here for worst part, and that would be in that emotional moment of facing the reality of the situation, they're thinking it's all over, and you know, you have this really great moment of her looking at her little brother and just saying, Hey, just go to sleep, it's gonna be okay. And you're like, ah, she's trying to spare him this agony and like this realization of like you're gonna burn alive. But it's the way Steve looks at her. He sees how she's being, and I don't get like, oh, I care about you so much, and I've like had this thing for you for so long. I just get this like really patriarchal sensation of like, look at what a great nurturer and caregiver she is. That she'd make a fine wife. For some reason, then 50s version him looking at her that way felt I see you as a mother now. If we make it out of the saliva, we'll have babies with you. It just felt weird. But I will say the best part of the 1958 version is the theme song that we get with the title cards in the beginning of the movie. That was fantastic. Correct. Definitely agree.

SPEAKER_00 56:14

I have to pick an uh worst part about 1958, it's kind of hard because like you can pick it apart, I think. You know, it's it's it's an older movie, but the worst part for me is the overall feeling that we are running back and forth. And it's a weird feeling. I I I have a hard time describing this, but it happens in a lot of sci-fi, especially at night, um, where you can't really tell the difference between a lot of locations, and it just seems like you do this thing where you go, okay, characters gonna be here, they're gonna say a bunch of stuff, now let's go run over here, and let's go run back and forth, and they're just going back and forth and back and forth. Like we're going to the houses, now we're at the um, you know, we're at the uh the sheriff's office, now we're going back over here, and let's go back to this to the medical office. Like, I feel like at least in the 88 version, you get a better sense of like the scope of this town and a lot of different places where we're you know, where our characters are, but I feel like in 58 that was probably our worst part. It just felt like we were being balanced back and forth between the few different places we had to shoot.

SPEAKER_03 57:14

I agree. That was tough, but it was not nearly as bad as in 1988 when we get the Spider-Man shooting, Spider-Man, shooting, Spider-Man, shooting, Spider-Man scene at the end, and everyone's just holding up their guns, pointing at each other in a circle. It's so dumb. And then not only do we get that silly, silly moment, but we also have like an extension of the ending where there's just like they shoot one of the basically Spider-Man shoots Spider-Man, and uh, you know, accidentally, I guess it's the blob's fault. But like that whole bit there in the middle, standoff in the middle of the street, that was the worst. It's very funny. The ending is the best part of the first one, and the ending, like added ending parts are the worst part of the second one.

SPEAKER_01 58:02

You make such a great point, Ryan, and I would concur with you. I will add another worst part on top of this, and that is the unnecessary sexual harassment and assault that we get in a car. She he thinks she's asleep and passed out from the drinking, so he's just gonna unbutton her blouse. Again, something that added no value to that moment. So gross. The only thing it served to do was to make you happy that he got it, right? Like the blob ends up getting him, but also she already got got, so she loses no matter what, and it's just fucking terrible. And like it's again, it's an unnecessary thing that had no place in this movie.

SPEAKER_03 58:41

So gross, and also that trunk was not secured enough for driving. Especially back in the day, like he just had stuff out, he just had bottles out, he had a pile of strawberries. Where'd that pile of strawberries come from? That wasn't secure when you got there. Loose strawberries? Loose strawberries. No, there's no way. Let me let's talk about trunks, okay? Things don't stay where you put them. That's not realistic.

SPEAKER_00 59:07

I I do like a lot about the 1988. I think one of the things I liked about 1958 is that you could interpret it in a bunch of different ways, or you could say that it's completely shallow and it doesn't deserve interpretation. I think an easy one anytime you mention alien invaders is going to be xenophobia. And it's it's pretty clear here how it's affecting a small town and how they have to band together to keep the outsiders out because it's slowly taking over. I like that in 1988 we changed things up a bit and we get into this like government conspiracy stuff. I mean, you could say this is I don't know, like with a crack epidemic. I I don't know, like who knows which way you could interpret this, like 50 different ways. The government like cover-up thing was interesting at first. Um, the whole like this is a weapon. I loved it, it's classic sci-fi. But then when they had a bunch of guns, that's where they lost me. Is like these dudes in hazmat suits who are like a bunch of bureaucrats and scientists and stuff, now have to chase Kevin Dillon on a motorcycle and try to take him out. It just it seemed kind of tacked on and wasn't my favorite. Um, I definitely would have preferred it had they gone a different route with that, you know, like a larger government presence, maybe like blocking the town completely off, like there's no escape, would have been more my style. But it it did seem a little bit like haphazard just to have the hazmat guys go from studying this thing to suddenly they all have M16s on them. Alien invasions are oftentimes you know seen as like this insidious force where one person is affected and then it's two and then it's ten, it's like, oh my goodness, it's taking over, and all of our good American values are just gonna go right out the window. Um, and yeah, it's a it's a huge trope. So you could interpret it that way if you want to. But I mean, I I think watching watching 88 though, like it's an enjoyable little B movie. You don't have to look too deep into it, but I think you could, you know, if if you wanted to, because I think the government conspiracy thing 100% was something that people were worried about and concerned about in the 1980s. Um, I think the whole like weaponization of something for the government use, obviously something that they were thinking about back then. I think if we were to carry it forward another 15 to 20 years, it would have ended up in the private sector and then contracted by the government. That's how things would have really landed.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:18

Okay, so we would have monetized the blob, got it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:20

Oh, a hundred percent. The government would have created it, researched it, studied it, right, and then we would hand it over to their um to their friends in the private sector who would then charge the government 10 times as much.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:31

Ooh, love that. Feels great. Uh what doesn't feel as great is my desire to re-watch either of these movies anytime soon. I think they do have some rewatchability. I really need to get over whatever this mysterious thing is with me and Kevin Dillon where I just can't see past him. Maybe one day when I make peace with that relationship, I can give it a go again because the gore and the effects really were top-notch. The 1958 version I can absolutely see re-watching when I want to have a nice, chill, rainy day. But again, no time soon. I think there are a lot of other like movies of this era. Like I'd love to see the movie that this was on a double feature with. I'd like to see some other like creature features, monster movies before watching this one again.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:13

I have an answer for you. What's that thing called? Um, you know, when we see human-like things, but we know that they're not human. Is it like Uncanny Valley?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:21

The Uncanny Valley.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:22

Yeah, so is this Kevin Bacon Uncanny Valley for you? Is that what's happening?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:26

Maybe. I don't know. I just don't fucking like him. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:30

I think you just need a break from him. Probably. Well, I'm gonna take a little break from these movies. I'm not running to see them again. I probably would re-watch the 1980 version again someday, but it's gonna be a while.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:42

I think these both have rewatch value. I think the 58 more so than the 88. I think the 88 is something like you watch and you're like, yeah, I totally have seen that. And if somebody else is like, oh, I'm getting into some old 80s movies, maybe you're like, Yeah, dude, do it. And if like you want to join me, you're like, I'm good, I've seen it. You know, but the 58, I think you could throw that in one of your like classics rotations, your older movies, you know. If you happen to be like me and want to own a projector one day, maybe that's one of the ones that you project, and you have your air popper make all that popcorn and you just watch movies for three days straight.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:11

Ooh, that actually sounds very cozy, and I would love to join you on this and on this endeavor.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:15

I have to find eventually one, an affordable projector and screen, um, but old like theater chairs. They have to be red for some reason. Uh, I already have the air popper, it's like designed like a classic air popper design. It's red and stuff. And uh but yeah, I know this is the way. This is this is the way.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:31

Obviously, we have some sentiments about rewatching these movies, but I think you know, when all is said and done, i the blob 1988 scored much better than the 58, but the 58 still has its value. So let's do our quick head-to-head comparison here. Which version do you think had the better visuals? 88.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:48

88.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:48

Okay, for most things, I'm actually gonna go 58, but for the effects and the gore, 88 wins out for me. But I just love the cinematography of the 58, and that's just my my penchant for nostalgia. But what about the better story?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:01

Oh, this is tough because I like simple, and simple is best. But the characters are more interesting at 88. I'm gonna I'm gonna still go 58 for story.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:10

I'm going 88 for government conspiracy.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:13

I can give an honorable mention to the 88, but I love the 58. I love the mysterious we're just humans trying to survive a night, versus the extra insidious layer. Like uh, I don't want to be reminded of how much things already stuck in reality. You know what I mean? It's like a little bit of escapism for the 58. 88 still has a great story though. And what about the performances? Ugh.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:35

This is a tough ask because 1958 gives us 1958 performances. We do get Steve, though. So that's that's a major point in its favor. So I'll I'll go 58.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:46

I guess I'm gonna go eighty-eight. It's it's not better though. It's they they're the same.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:54

I think it would be very easy for me to prefer performances in the 1988 version, but no one blew me away so much, so I'm gonna give it to the 58, and here's why. We have a fantastic dog in this movie who's really giving it his all. He's barking up a storm, he's trying to be aggressive, and when the going got tough, he got going down the street to safety. So your boy gets top notch there. There was a very cute dog in '88, too. He was adorable. There was, but honestly, the 58 dog did more. Different economy.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:28

This is a horrible poll. The people were so bad that we prefer the dogs and their acting skills.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:35

All I'm saying is there were uh there was a lot of way in that little terrier's shoulders. And with that, folks, the blob from 1958 and the blob from 1988 have both fared pretty well on our show, with the 58 earning only one hack and two slashes, and then 88 remake 30 years later earning a universal slash. Now, we've had a lot to talk about here, but it doesn't end here by any means. We want to know what you think. Where do you stand? Do you prefer the 88 version? Do you like the almost innocence of the 1958 original? Let us know. You can join in on the conversation for free by hanging out with us over in our Discord, and you can click the link in our show notes to sign up.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:14

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SPEAKER_01 1:06:26

We'll see you next time, folks, and remember timing is everything. Bye.