Michael Scott
Partner / Reviewer
More
- Preamp, Processor or Receiver
- Yamaha TRS-7850 Atmos Receiver
- Other Amp
- Peavy IPR 3000 for subs
- Universal / Blu-ray / CD Player
- Panasonic UB820 4K UHD Player
- Front Speakers
- Cheap Thrills Mains
- Center Channel Speaker
- Cheap Thrills Center
- Surround Speakers
- Volt 10 Surrounds
- Surround Back Speakers
- Volt 10 Rear Surrounds
- Rear Height Speakers
- Volt 6 Overheads
- Subwoofers
- 2x Marty subs (full size with SI 18's)
- Video Display Device
- Sony 85 inch X950H FALD TV
For 80s horror fans, there’s very few cult classic films that comes close to the cheesiness and sheer FUN that was 1988’s The Blob remake (I actually like it better than the Steve McQeen 1958 original I might add). The only way to get this on Blu-ray (at least domestically) was to get the 2014 release by Twilight Time. However, if you know anything about them, they limit themselves to 3,000 or 5,000 copies depending on the popularity only to be sold out forever. The Blob was one of their highly anticipated titles, and even bumped up from 3,000 to 5,000 copies they sold out in a matter of 1-2 days if I remember correctly (at most a day or so beyond that) and the title has effectively been out of print for the last 5 years. I was actually one of the people who stayed up late just to be able to get my order in before they went live and snag my coveted copy. Now fast forward 5 years and Scream Factory has slowly been getting the licenses for some of the out of print Twilight Time releases (John Carpenter’s Vampires comes to mind as another of their acquisitions) and pumped it up with a metric TON of new special features, as well as new cover art drawn by Joel Robinson himself.
As a big fan of the original 1958 film, I have to admit to liking this remake a little better. My musical, film, and art tastes really tend to swing heavily towards the 1980s, and this was just one of the better remakes of the time to boot. Director/Co-writer Chuck Russell plays with the audience a little bit, teasing them with the basic premise of the original, then deviating rather heavily and turning the entire film on it’s ear. We still have a teenage couple who run across an old homeless man in the woods who is inadvertently patient zero for a mysterious organism, only to find out that this organism is actually a monstrous “blob” who’s only goal is to eat and consume every living thing in its path, and eat it does.
Meg (a 19 year old Shawnee Smith) and high school Jock Paul Taylor (Donovan Leitch Jr.) are out on a date when they meet the old man, but a tragic turn of events turns Meg into a woman on the run as the blob gets out of control and begins to eat people in the hospital. The local sheriff (played by Jeffrey DeMunn) doesn’t exactly believe her that a strange “entity” is murdering people, and her parents aren’t exactly keen on the idea either. The only one that they can even TRY to pin the deaths on is local miscreant Brian Flagg (Kevin Dillon), and even then there’s no motive. Desperate to try to prove herself, Meg seeks out Brian in hopes of getting him to believe her, but soon it won’t really matter. The blob is getting bigger and bigger as it eats more and more townsfolk, and they’re about to believe whether they want to or not.
The body count is actually rather high for a film of this type, and the humor is kept to an absolute minimum. Usually with monster movie there is some sort of slapstick humor played for yucks to break up the gore, but The Blob is pretty straight forward. It came to eat people and there’s a LOOOOOT of people in this podunk town to eat. The practical effects for the death scenes are impressively gory and gooey, with some really memorable death scenes as well. The Blob may not be the perfect 80s horror movie, but it is most certainly a cult classic for a reason and is one of my favorite Halloween watches every year.
Rating:
Rated R by the MPAA
Video:

Audio:

Extras:

• NEW audio commentary with actress Shawnee Smith
• NEW It Fell From the Sky! – an interview with director Chuck Russell
• NEW We Have Work to Do – an interview with actor Jeffrey DeMunn
• NEW Minding the Dinner – an interview with actress Candy Clark
• NEW They Call Me Mellow Purple – an interview with actor Donovan Leitch Jr.
• NEW Try to Scream! – an interview with actor Bill Moseley
• NEW Shot Him! – an interview with cinematographer Mark Irwin
• NEW The Incredible Melting Man – an interview with special effects artist Tony Gardner
• NEW Monster Math – an interview with special effects supervisor Christopher Gilman
• NEW Haddonfield to Arborville – an interview with production designer Craig Stearns
• NEW The Secret of the Ooze – an interview with mechanical designer Mark Setrakian
• NEW I Want that Organism Alive! – an interview with Blob mechanic Peter Abrahamson
• NEW Gardner's Grue Crew – behind-the-scenes footage of Tony Gardner and his team
• Audio Commentary with director Chuck Russell, moderated by film producer Ryan Turek
• Theatrical Trailers
• TV Spot
• Still Gallery
• Optional English subtitles for the main feature
Final Score:

Even though the collector in me is loathe to get rid of my Twilight Time release, I can’t help but admit that the Scream Factory release of The Blob is definitely the superior copy to own. Not only does it come with a slightly better video encode (details on that are above in the video scored section), but Scream Factory has LOADED this disc down with about as much extras as one could possibly hope for. A magnitude more than what we had before. So for those of you who missed out on the now we have it, now it’s gone release from Twilight Time, be assured that this is going to be cheaper AND better quality. A true collector’s edition for the fan of one of my favorite 80s horror movies. Definitely a great buy for horror fans.
Technical Specifications:
Starring: Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, Paul McCrane, Del Close, Joe Seneca, Candy Clark, Donovan Leitch Jr., Jeffrey DeMunn
Directed by: Chuck Russell
Written by: Chuck Russell, Frank Darabont
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 95 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 29th, 2019
Recommendation: Great Buy
Last edited: