The Blob (1988) Saturday Monster Movies

Thirty years after the original tale of a growing mass of jelly invading from space, Hollywood returned to retell the tale. Only this time they don’t give us an innocent story of teens being misunderstood as they try to warn society of an amorphous threat. This time around, we get a shockingly gruesome and serious story of more sinister origins.

In this version, a small American town is thrown into chaos when a gelatinous, flesh-consuming organism emerges from a meteorite. As the Blob rapidly grows, dissolving everything in its path, local teens Paul, Brian, and Meg struggle to survive and warn the town. Shocking audiences with the much darker tone, Paul is killed off after being set up as our main character. The fight for survival takes an even darker turn when they uncover that the Blob is not an alien creature but a secret government bioweapon gone wrong. As the military arrives to contain their own creation—caring more about control than saving lives—the teens must take matters into their own hands to stop the relentless horror before it consumes everything.

1980s America was a much different place than its 50s counterpart. Today, over thirty years later, trust in institutions has devolved even further. Stories like this one both reflect that decline as well as contribute to it. In an epilogue, the film shows a priest who has started his own cult, with fragments of the blob ready to usher in his self-proclaimed apocalypse.