Showing posts with label The Blob. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Blob. Show all posts
Monday, August 10, 2026
Bruce Campbell vs. the Blobs
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
Beware Beware! The Blob
In 1972 Beware! The Blob was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. Directed by Larry Hagman of I Dream of Jeannie and Dallas fame, this strange little movie is ostensibly a sequel to the original Steve McQueen vehicle of 1958 - and yet it cannot be a true sequel, for reasons I'll explain below.
The film opens with the mundane daily routine of a middle-aged couple and their kitten. Chester, the husband, has brought home a cannister containing a sample of something strange one of his crew unearthed up north. There's a warning on the cannister to keep the contents frozen, so naturally Chester keeps it in the freezer section of his refrigerator, which upsets his wife, who places it on a countertop. Of course the container houses the dreaded Blob, dispatched in the first film when teenagers and the military discovered it was vulnerable to cold; they hauled it to the frozen Arctic for safekeeping.
The Blob runs amok, killing Chester's kitten, his wife, and then Chester himself. The Blob has returned, and -
But wait! Just before he's killed, we observe Chester watching television. A harried Steve McQueen is explaining to a policeman that this is no practical joke -
Wait a minute. Chester is watching The Blob, a work of science fiction. The Blob of the 1950s isn't real in Chester's world; he just happens to fall victim to the unhappy irony of being killed by a brand new Blob while watching a film about people being eaten by a Blob.
Of course, there is another explanation; perhaps the events of The Blob did happen in the world of Beware! The Blob and 1950s filmmakers of that world made a movie about those real-life events in 1958.
There. The integrity of this fictional universe hangs together after all.
The film opens with the mundane daily routine of a middle-aged couple and their kitten. Chester, the husband, has brought home a cannister containing a sample of something strange one of his crew unearthed up north. There's a warning on the cannister to keep the contents frozen, so naturally Chester keeps it in the freezer section of his refrigerator, which upsets his wife, who places it on a countertop. Of course the container houses the dreaded Blob, dispatched in the first film when teenagers and the military discovered it was vulnerable to cold; they hauled it to the frozen Arctic for safekeeping.
The Blob runs amok, killing Chester's kitten, his wife, and then Chester himself. The Blob has returned, and -
But wait! Just before he's killed, we observe Chester watching television. A harried Steve McQueen is explaining to a policeman that this is no practical joke -
Wait a minute. Chester is watching The Blob, a work of science fiction. The Blob of the 1950s isn't real in Chester's world; he just happens to fall victim to the unhappy irony of being killed by a brand new Blob while watching a film about people being eaten by a Blob.
Of course, there is another explanation; perhaps the events of The Blob did happen in the world of Beware! The Blob and 1950s filmmakers of that world made a movie about those real-life events in 1958.
There. The integrity of this fictional universe hangs together after all.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
The Blob
Come to think of it, the Blob should fight Godzilla. And the Three Stooges, but then the Three Stooges should fight everyone: Bruce Lee, Tarzan, Zorro, Hannibal Lecter, Dirty Harry, the Man with No Name, the Three Musketeers, the Mummy, etc. I'd go see each and every "Three Stooges vs." movie. In fact, I'd buy them all on Blu-Ray. Get with it, Hollywood!
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