Beware the Blob

Though advertised on the back of the box art as a "sequel" to the 1958 film The Blob, this film is in no way a sequel but esentually a remake. Beware! The Blob is as much a sequel to the original Blob as the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is to the original. There is no mention of the events of the original film what-so-ever. Now that we got that out of the way lets talk about Beware! The Blob. The premise of a 70's remake of the original sounds exciting, but sadly this film does not live up to expectations. First off Beware! The Blob is terribly shot and directed., which hence gives the film a very amaturish feel. Many of the pull back camera shots are shaky and there seems to be no flair in Larry Hageman's direction. The story also has its problems. First of all is how the Blob is brought into the story. Some man in the begining that is a geologist (though this character definitly does not fit the role( supposidly finds a "sample" his crew dug up in the ground and stores it in his freezer. Naturally it thaws and the "blob" is unleashed The problem is that no hwere in teh story is there talk of it being "alien" or "human made" like in the other two fersions of the film (One in 1958 and 1988). The blob is just there! The story also has many useless moments and senarios. Take the boy scout senerio for instance. There is no point to these scenes with the boy scouts outher than to fill up time. Also many of hte characters just stupidly throw themselvesat the blob. One cop shoots, try's to flee, falls, then is eaten. One guy even has the gale to drive his car into the blob even when he ovviously sees it from a far away distance. These characters drove me nuts!! Director Larry Hagman also doesn't know whether to treat this as a straight horror film or a spoof of the genre. Htere are many scenes that are scary and suspensful (such as when the blob covers a car with occumpents trapped inside) but there are also many scenes of shear campyness that throws the movie off balence. hte music score was also quit terrible and actually ruins what are supposed to be suspensful scenes. The special effects aen't too bad, especially for the time, but many of them are quite outdated. This film is also not aided by the numerous bad titles it is under. Beware! The Blob...come on. This was also released as Son of Blob (that was the title of it when I first saw it), which is actually worse than the title Beware! The Blob. If you liked the original Blob, you might want to tcheck this film out just for kicks by renting it or buying it real cheap. Otherwise your best bet is to go for the 1988 remake.

Cindy Williams, Shelley Berman, Dick van Patten, Burgess Meredith and other familiar faces get together in this direct sequel to the original Steve McQueen movie. The original blob was taken to the frozen north. An oil worker finds something strange in the permafrost and brings it home where his wife doesn't want it in the freezer. Well, it thaws, and after a fly and a kitten, the creature moves on to human prey.

This is a strange film with camp pushed to its limits. Nothing is safe from the creature in this small town and nothing is same from the film makers. Hippies, hairdos, hobos, and the strangest barber since Monty Python's Michael Palin are just the tip of the iceberg is this strange film. There is even a clip from a certain Steve McQueen film. It fits into the blob scenarios the same way that Godzilla vs The Smog Monster fits with the rest of the Godzilla films.

The effects are pretty good (foreshadowing those of the remake) but the acting and pacing make it more like a sketch comedy version. This is like a case of the moth and the flame, you know it is bad for you but you are still drawn to it. Check it out.

This camp horror schlock is a heck of a lot of fun to watch (think Saturday night drive in) once you learn that it was Larry Hagman's low budget "home movie" attempt at cashing in on the Blob-ularity of the original. All the celebs on board (Cindy Williams, gorgeous Carol Lynley, Dick Van Patten, Godfrey Cambridge, etc etc) are all appearing because they were Hagman's Malibu neighbors and he said, "Hey! Let's make a movie!" The rest is runny, red history!