Why The Blob (1958) is still enjoyable

Image from siff.net

Horror month has begun. And so The Garden is once again celebrating all things horror. In the past, I’ve talked about such classics as Cat People (1942), The Spiral Staircase (1946), The Uninvited (1944), among others, as well as the Wolfman/Invisible Man DOUBLE BILL, which is still one of my favorite Double Bills in the series.

This year, I thought I’d kick things off something a little less on the psychological horror side of things and more on the silly, I-can-see-why-this-was-a-hit side of the horror spectrum, The Blob (1958). Steve McQueen’s breakthrough was a far cry from the movies he’d come to be most associated with but damn, the King of Cool was always the coolest cat within a 5 mile radius, and this was no exception. Even when he’s trying to protect the town from an alien life form… as you do. The Blob might not be the most original plot, by today’s standards, but it was pretty much one of the original sci-fi-horror hybrids about a mutating amoeboidal alien terrorizing a small town and it was a damn good one at that.

Steve (McQueen) and Jane (Aneta Corseaut) are teenagers in love. Yes, teenagers. McQueen, born in 1930 played a teenager in 1958. And you thought Grease was weird. Anyway, they come across a man whom we’ve seen being attacked by this strange life form. They take him to see the doctor, and soon realize what’s happening… The title song would have you believe you’re about to watch some rom-com with Rock Hudson and Doris Day, but oh no. Cute teenage love meets horror meets sci-fi. And then some. This is the perfect example of the explosion of genres that the late 50s became known for. All of these genres were developing around this time and while these days, they may be commonplace, back then they were fresh and new and it’s quite something to have them all collide in such a fun, utterly enjoyable fashion.

If you’ve been following me on social media, you probably know that The Thing (1982) is my favorite horror movie. And ‘the thing’ is my favorite monster of the genre, but looking at The Blob, one can see why this became such a popular trope. It’s an easy, go-to plot device that works on both a horror level and a sci-fi one, and have there ever been two movie genres that go as perfectly together as horror and sci-fi? Match made in heaven. Or hell, in this case.

Happy Horror Month!