We Need An Apocalyptic Blob Sequel Not A Remake

Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly remaking the 1958 sci-fi classic, The Blob. David Bruckner, whose credits include The Ritual, V/H/S 85, and Hellraiser (2022) will be writing and directing the new movie. This is another ’50s classic that does not need a remake, but rather, a sequel. The original film told the story of a small town besieged by an alien that enveloped and consumed its prey. The Blob was eventually stopped by being frozen and then flown to the Arctic. The movie set up a sequel with its final line about the Blob’s fate, “As long as the Arctic stays cold.” With Arctic temperatures and ice melt hitting record highs, now is the perfect time for The Blob to thaw.

The Story

The Blob opens with teens Steven (Steve McQueen) and Jane (Aneta Corsaut) at look-out point. Steven comments on a shooting star in the night sky. The star in question is a meteor which impacts near an Old Man‘s (Olin Howland) camp. The Old Man finds the meteorite and the gooey object inside. When he pokes it with a stick, the little Blob streams onto his hand, sending him screaming into the woods. Steven and Jane find the Old Man and take him to Dr. T. Hallen (Stephen Chase). Shortly after they leave, the Blob consumes the Old Man, Nurse Kate (Lee Payton) and the doctor. Steven witnesses Dr. Hallen’s death through a window. Unfortunately, the police don’t believe his story.

Steven and Jane team up with their friends to find the Blob. In the meantime, it claims more victims and grows. The police come around when the Blob attacks a movie theater. Bullets have no affect on the alien, and the Blob covers a diner where Steven, Jane, and others seek refuge. It seeps through every crack, getting closer as they move into the basement. When a downed power line sets the diner on fire, Steven notices the Blob retreat from a blast of a CO2 fire extinguisher, and calls out cold is the answer.

The police attack with CO2 extinguishers and force the Blob back enough for Steven and the others to escape. The Blob is frozen and subdued. Lt. Dave (Earl Rowe), tells Steven and Jane the military is going to transport it to the Arctic. The Blob is parachuted onto a vast frozen landscape, and a question mark appears on screen.

Building A Blob

Theodore Simonson and Kay Linaker wrote the screenplay for The Blob, based on a story by Irvine H. Millgate. Simonson also wrote The Colossus of New York (1958) and The Fly (1958) sequel Return of the Fly (1959). Linaker wrote the early sound horror film The Cat Creeps (1930) and Murder In The Blue Room (1944). The film was directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., whose sci-fi credits included 4D Man (1959) and Dinosaurus! (1960). The budget was $110,000 and it made $4 million at the box office. Adjusting to 2024 dollars would be an estimated $38 million box office from a $1 million investment.

The impressive special effects of The Blob were the craftsmanship of Bart Sloane. The amorphous monster was constructed of a silicone gel and red vegetable dye mixture. Colored slimes and gels were applied to actors suffering the agonizing throes of being consumed. The film took full advantage of forced perspective, matte paintings, and miniatures, to convey the Blob’s growth. These elements combined with a brilliant color print added to the film’s horror and staying power.

The Blob is so beloved, there is an annual festival held in Phoenixville PA, where the 1958 movie was shot. Blobfest even provides festival goers the opportunity to run out of The Colonial Theater, as portrayed in the original film.

The Cast

Olin Howland (Old Man) – Howland was born in 1886 and began his movie career in the 1930s. His appearances included THEM! (1953), When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1942), and Gone With The Wind (1939). The Blob was one of his last features before his death.

Steve McQueen (Steven Andrews) – The Blob was cinema legend Steve McQueen’s first feature film, and he followed it many of memorable roles. Some of my favorites are The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), and Papillon (1973).

Aneta Corsaut (Jane Martin) – The Blob was also Corsaut’s first movie role. She is fondly remembered as school teacher Helen Crump in the Andy Griffith Show (1963). Corsaut also appeared in episodes of The Blue Knight (1975) and Adam-12 (1968).

Earl Rowe (Lt. Dave) – Along with appearances in the series The Doctors (1963) and Kojak (1973), Rowel is best known as the no-nonsense cop who goes from disbelieving to joining Steve McQueen in battling The Blob.

Stephen Chase (Dr. T. Hallen) – Stephen’s face off with the Blob was short-lived, but his place in sci-fi movie history was set by his role in When Worlds Collide (1951). His acting career included the 1935 version of Les Miserables, and episodes of The Rifleman (1959), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960), and Perry Mason (1960).

Blob After Blob

The Blob received a sequel and remake in the decades since its release. Beware! The Blob was a 1972 low-budget B-movie about a piece of the creature accidently being transported from the Arctic to the US. Its campiness stood in stark contrast to the serious tone of the original and is viewed today as a cult classic. The movie was the directorial debut of Larry Hagman, who also starred. Hagman was one of the biggest names on television, thanks to his role as the ruthless oil tycoon J. R. Ewing on Dallas (1978-1991). It did not help the movie’s performance as I could not locate any box office figures. Beware! The Blob also starred Robert Walker Jr., known to fans of the original Star Trek series as Charlie in the episode, “Charlie X.”

I wonder how Beware! The Blob would have fared with a bigger budget and better direction given its special effects team of Rick Baker, James Cummins, and Tim Baar. Rick Baker is a legend in the field, earning numerous awards including the first ever Best Makeup Oscar for An American Werewolf in London (1982). His expansive portfolio includes Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), The Howling (1981), Gorillas In The Mist (1988), Men In Black (1997), Tron: Legacy (2010), and Maleficent (2014). James Cummins worked on John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), House (1985), Enemy Mine (1985), and DeepStar Six (1989). Tim Baar was the veteran having worked on The Ten Commandments (1956), Master of The World (1961), and Jaws (1975).

The 1988 remake of The Blob adapted most of the original plot, with the Blob crashing on Earth and terrorizing a small town. This version added the military, a government conspiracy, and more graphic scenes of the Blob’s attacks. The effects team at Industrial Light and Magic had victims pulled into drain pipes and dissolved before our very eyes. Albeit fun to watch, the effects could not save the film at the box office, where it earned $8 million against a $19 million production budget.

Once More Unto The Blob

We have no details on Bruckner’s vision for the classic monster, but climate change has provided a logical progression from the original to the present day. The US military dropped the Blob in the Arctic to remain frozen for, hopefully, thousands of years. I do not believe the Blob was dropped close to the North Pole, to avoid any Soviet notice. Since the 1980s, the Arctic summer has become hotter, resulting in expanding summer ice thinning and melt.

Since 1958, the Blob’s container would be encased in ice, akin to lost ships of Arctic explorers. Thanks to the summer melt, the Blob’s icy prison breaks away from the ice sheet and drifts south as an iceberg. This increasing occurrence has become a tourist draw for seaside towns in Newfoundland, Canada, where people watch the majestic giants.

Eventually, the container falls free from the dwindling iceberg and cracks upon the seabed, or is left on a rugged shore after the berg grounded. Either way, the creature is free to feed. Once the Blob is finally noticed, it would have grown to cataclysmic size and becomes a global menace. Would humanity find a way to stop it, or retreat into colder climes, hoping their sanctuary doesn’t melt away? My vision does not have a happy ending for humanity. We will have to wait a while to learn what Bruckner has in store for us.