One Of The Scariest Scenes In The Blob Remake Is Primetime Body Horror
We don't talk enough about how 1958's "The Blob" and 1988's remake makes for one of the best original/remake combinations. They're both time capsules of societal paranoias from their respective eras. One is about a Pleasantville town banding together to defeat an outsider invader — the next is a government conspiracy flick about corruption within official departments. The '50s film plays around with a cranberry jelly-lookin' monster and cutting-edge photography tricks of the time that could manage such freaky sci-fi effects, while the '80s update enlists future SFX gurus like Tony Gardner to pull off awe-striking gelatinous carnage. Director Chuck Russell helped shape the future of practical-driven horror, showing what all-star craftsmanship can accomplish that digital animation will never touch.
In 1988's "The Blob," multiple scenes douse viewers with buckets of heebie-jeebies. Russell's Blob is a man, woman, and child eater that disintegrates flesh with its acidic slime — and we see it all. There's no escape from the grotesque digestion happening through translucent film stretched around bodies, mouths agape and wailing like ghouls from the beyond. A few scenes stick out as the most disturbing, but it's hard to deny the impact of what happens near the start. Let's get to the good, gross, and gooey stuff.
The setup
A meteorite crash-lands in the quaint American town of Arborville, California. Within the smoldering rock is a mucus-like entity from out of this world. An elderly man stumbles upon the landing site, and the slimy visitor adheres to his hand like a glove. He's not in great shape, so local high schoolers Brian Flagg (Kevin Dillon), Meg Penny (Shawnee Smith), and Paul Taylor (Donovan Leitch) take the man to the hospital. They're trying to help, but the time for sympathy is long gone. The Blob has arrived, and no one is safe.
The story so far
Bad boy Brian isn't staying around the hospital, so he leaves. Meg waits with Paul, the doctor, and the remaining patients. Paul checks on the older man lying in bed, where his skin begins to pulsate like he's about to explode. An appropriately freaked-out Paul interrupts the doctor and demands he checks on the man with slime around his hand. Paul and the doctor pull back the man's bedsheets to reveal his bottom half has been metabolized into a sludge of human remains — and The Blob is gone.
Doc pages for a nurse (a little late, methinks) while Paul calls the sheriff. While talking, droplets of something start hitting the desk, eating through the wooden top with a fizz and steam. Paul looks up and — much to his horror — sees the bubble-gum pink mass about to pounce.
The scene
Paul lets out an alarming scream as The Blob leaps downward like a veiny blanket. Meg hears from the waiting room and rushes to check on America's sweetheart. To her immediate horror, she finds Paul trapped within The Blob's enveloping grasp like the biggest wad of Big League Chew wrapped around a shrieking soul.
Paul's arm is outreach as his muffled howls of pain are no louder than squishy sound effects as The Blob slithers all over Paul. His face can be seen through the thinnest patch of goop; his features pull back like a champion weightlifter is tugging on his scalp. His skin is melting away as The Blob stretches flesh and tissue back to try and expose his skeleton. Paul is royally 'effed, and we can do nothing but watch.
Meg attempts a last-ditch rescue, tugging on the arm reaching for salvation. Meg yanks and pulls, but instead of getting Paul out of his gloopy-doomy cocoon, she only saves the exposed appendage. Translation? She falls back as the arm is separated from Paul, as The Blob feasts on Paul's biology while his severed arm sits on the ground, blood still sizzling because of The Blob's deadly composition.
One final shot of Paul turns him into the Scream painting as his human form caves inward on itself under The Blob's constriction. It's like watching your stomach acid digest whatever was on the menu for lunch should your stomach have a glass viewing window — but way, WAY creepier.
The impact (Chris' take)
Man, I love "The Blob" remake. It's such an ooey gooey little movie full of some of the best practical effects you're likely to see. Seriously, this should be held up there with Carpenterr's "The Thing" in terms of special effects make-up. This scene in particular is a blast because it's a bit of a twist. Everything before this scene is structured in a way that you think Paul Taylor (Donovan Leitch) is going to be the main character. But no — Paul gets blobbed and dies a horrible death, turning cool guy Brian (Kevin Dillon) and Paul's girlfriend Meg (Shawnee Smith) as our new, blob-fighting heroes. What makes this so scary is how painful death-by-blob looks. You don't just get covered in goo, you end up melting as you scream the screams of the damned. I'm no medical expert, but in my opinion, that would suck.