When I was a wee lad of about 8 years old, I was terrified of the scene when the Blob latches onto the old man's hand. That old man really sold the pain.

Upon my latest re-watch, I noticed that this has just about the cutest dog I've ever seen. The little guy is smarter than all of the humans put together. Steve McQueen tries to pull off a teenager when he is clearly in his late 20s or maybe even 30.

The blob effect is really cool but it does suffer from scale problems. It is always in isolated shots. No one is ever shown near it. There is a matte painting that shows it engulfing a diner but it's one of the worst I've ever seen.

I wonder what the Blob actually is? It's alien, but how did it get inside the meteor? Was the meteor some sort of egg? Could it have wormed it's way into the meteor and then hollowed it out? Was it cast into space after some collision? Is it a bio-weapon from a malevolent force somewhere in the galaxy? Geez...who knows. It's kind of neat that none of those questions are answered or even really asked.

_**A weird hungry red glob from outer space!**_

Some teens (Steve McQueen & Aneta Corsaut) witness a strange Jell-O-like substance horrifically assault some people in a Pennsylvania town, but the police have a hard time believing their story.

Despite its datedness, “The Blob” (1958) is worth checking out as a window into small town America in 1957 (when it was shot) plus the fact that it was Steve McQueen’s debut starring role, not to mention the movie is genuinely scary in a quaint 50’s way. My only criticism is that Steve is clearly an adult male and not a teenager or youngster. He was 27 during shooting, but looked at least 30.

Larry Hagman did a sequel fourteen years later called “Beware! the Blob” (aka “Son of Blob”) after his rise to TV stardom with I Dream of Jeannie and before his return to popularity as J.R. in Dallas. It throws in quirky comedic bits amidst the serious horror and it is interesting to compare the two movies because of the social changes brought about by the radical events of the 60s. The sequel is an entertaining window into the counterculture of that time (specifically 1971 when the film was shot) and how the hippies or semi-hippies gelled with those of traditional culture. To me, it wasn’t a big deal as there’s always a “generation gap” between young and old in every decade, which can be observed even in the original film.

A quality remake of the original movie came out in 1988 and, like “Beware! The Blob,” walked the balance beam between utter horror and amusing non-horror. It had a bigger budget compared to Hagman’s film, but the addition of a subplot revealing the creature's origins as decidedly earth-centric took away from the Blob's otherworldly and creepy ambiance. Still, it’s a worthwhile reimagining.

The movie runs 1 hour, 26 minutes, and was shot entirely in southeast Pennsylvania in areas west of Philadelphia (Phoenixville, Downingtown, Valley Forge, Royersford & Chester Springs).

GRADE: A-/B+

A small bubble of jelly tumbles dramatically from the sky, landing in the woods just outside Main Street USA, and swiftly begins absorbing and digesting the town's population. Naturally, the only ones to understand this predicament are a small tribe of no-good teenagers, and the crusty old grown-ups don't listen to a word until it's almost too late.

It's a classic sci-fi trope, from the heart of Hollywood's cheap, silly, sci-fi boom, and that's always fun to watch... to a certain extent. After jumping right in with a first-scene asteroid crash, though, The Blob loses its way fairly quickly, dragging its feet through all manner of slow, dry, window-gazing scenes while the monster gets busy somewhere decidedly off-screen.

The attraction is a blob of man-eating goo, but the film seems more concerned with the history of kid-cop-parent relations in this sleepy little borough. It drags on forever, until it's suddenly time to wrap things up and then we rush through all the good stuff in a quick, delirious blur. It's in that quick, vibrant sprint that we enjoy all the best shots - a stampede to escape the theater, a fully-engulfed diner - but they're mere glances, and none seem blessed with the right amount of gravitas.

The history books tell us that this was never intended to be a hallmark of the genre, and that much is clear. The studio didn't think much of it because, apart from a brilliant title and a far-leftfield concept, there really isn't all that much to think about. It's an empty, abrupt, stupid, yet inexplicably magnetic, time capsule. A short, simple novelty at the best of times.