The Great American Melting Pot... of Bodies (The Blob 1988 movie review)

I watch The Blob (1988) with my boyfriend for date night, and although I haven't seen Twin Peaks myself, he said the mood of this movie was a very reminiscent of that show. He had also watched The Thing with me, and I liked that movie better, while he likes this one, The Blob,  better. 

I found a lot of elements from this movie very funny. From the condom gags when the Reverend showed up, to the yo-yo dangling down while the theater guy is being eaten, to Flagg flipping off the scientists as he jumps over the broken bridge, this movie had me giggling every few minutes. They did a great job pairing their humor with their horror.

Honestly, the monster initially looked like tapioca pudding on the one guy's hand, then grew to looking like the underside of someone's tongue, and ended the movie looking like a giant piece of chewed gum. I can't fault the special effects because this movie was made in 1988, and I did like the fact that the monsters appearance evolved throughout the movie. I'd be interested to see what they could do with the effects given how much I enjoy to them in the movie. Is there a modern remake of this movie? It might be worth a Google.

As far as character deaths went: I loved seeing Paul dissolve in his arm gets severed. Vicki's death was a little more comical with how her face melted inward, and Franny's death and melting face were also great. Honestly, all of the melting visuals were actually wonderful, especially the half dissolved faces scenes, like the theater guy and the lady on the floor that Mega turns over at the movies. The most satisfying death though was the car scene, where the guy who got his date drunk to take advantage of her gets his just desserts. I cheered when he died. I wish his death was even more drawn out honestly, or we got to see him get melted away rather than it being obscured by the car.

After finishing the movie, I'm left with a lot of questions about the content. I wonder why the blob is able to climb through vents and places without dissolving them given its acidic nature, and wonder if it's able to turn that effect on and off. The movie ended with me having many, many questions about the crystals that the monster shatters into. I also was a little skeptical that the blob’s weakness was cold temperatures given that it was born and raised in the cold vacuum of space.

However, I did like that that weakness was alluded to earlier in the movie, along with the usefulness and ‘we’ll get snow’ coming back around full-circle with the snow maker car saving the day. Like in the Writers Workshop of Horrors chapter we read this week on grand finales, the final scene of this movie is left open ended, a cliffhanger set up perfectly for a sequel. Honestly, I think the ending fits quite well (thought I don't remember who that Reverend is vs Meg’s dad). I’ve had more satisfying endings, and I kind of wish it had ended after they beat the blob in town, but it was alluded to earlier in the movie that the Reverend collected some of the crystals in the jar, so at least it was foreshadowed.

Overall, the movie was good, but not the best one we’ve watched so far this term.

I Lovecraft This Author

I forgot how Gothic and Victorian H. P. Lovecraft reads. I feel like I need to put on a cloak and read these stories by candlelight (which I casually do have the supplies for). However, I only set the scene before reading for Call of Cthulhu.

Lovecraft set a standard in horror and just fiction in general. Otherworldly horrors became something that still inspires people to this day. I first found my love for him after reading Dagon, and I’ve been delving into spookier reading and writing ever since. I own the Call of Cthulhu tabletop gaming rule books, and even have the Cthulhu Virtual Pet app on my phone. Lovecraft was, and will always be, very influential to writers.

Being objective however, I find the distinct voice Lovecraft has in his writing works really well for his otherworldly Horrorterror stories about gods, but works less for his human stories with a monstrous twist at the end. Both Pickman's Model and The Outsider followed that trope, the twist at the very end, which is kind of predictable by today's standards. I expected both outcomes given the foreshadowing in the text and knowing how Lovecraft writes. That trope is something we see all the time in modern stories. However, I found that it worked much better in The Outsider than in Pickman's Model, where it was a little too drawn out.

My general thoughts on the three stories we read were as follows:

The Outsider was good, albeit predictable. I knew he was going to be the monster in the mirror as soon as he entered the room, but at the same time I liked that twist and was pleased with the ending. The beginning was full of beautiful descriptions very stereotypical to how I would describe the tone to Lovecraft’s writing. Very eloquent.

Pickman’s Model still has the nice descriptions stereotypical of the author, but I felt in this one the lead up was dragging on to get to the point of him describing seeing the pictures at the end. The beginning was saved a little in how he told the story through the narrator’s point of view and interview-style. However, I find myself after the fact remembering very little of the beginning because it all blurred together. Once again, the twist at the end was predictable but acceptable and nice enough.

Call of Cthulhu is a beloved story close to my heart. I’ve read it many times, so I am a little biased rereading it. But at the same time, it is a Lovecraft classic. It has his classic voice and plot arcs that saves explanations until the end. Despite being longer than the other stories above, every part felt necessary and interesting with good foreshadowing. As alluded to in my beginning, instead of reading this story, I listened to it narrated by a British man while I was soaking in a bath and that made it even more aesthetic. It was a glorious experience.

If you think that you’d get to the end and I wouldn’t recommend Lovecraft then you don’t know me very well. I have a purse with Cthulhu on it that I brought with me to my friend wedding. Cthulhu was literally my date to that wedding.

READ H.P. LOVECRAFT.

Lieutenant Ford Tries to Get Home ft. Godzilla (Godzilla 2014 movie review)

This may come as a surprise to people, but this is the first time I’ve ever watched a Godzilla movie. In fact, it’s the first time I’ve watched a kaiju movie in general. My takeaway was my dad offering to watch some of the older movies with me, and I agreed.

Godzilla (2014) was a great movie. Not a great movie about Godzilla, but a great movie otherwise. I forgot it was a Godzilla movie until we hit half way through, because he doesn’t even show up until 1 hour into the 2 hour movie. The plot doesn’t feel much about the monsters. It’s more about the main character, Lieutenant Ford Brody, and his journey to reach his family. My dad compared the ‘get home at all costs’ plot to the movie The Day After Tomorrow (book: The Coming Global Super Storm by Art Bell). I think that’s a fitting choice. Braving what nature throws at you in hopes to be reunited with your family before it’s too late. In this case, nature is the parasitic titans called MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms). Even though the one mysterious hatched egg at the start hooked me in, I forgot about the monsters pretty quickly and would have believed you if you told me it was a war movie about nuclear bombs or something.

And speaking of MUTOs! Not knowing anything about Godzilla, I initially thought they were supposed to be Mothra. I was wrong. MUTOs ≠ Mothra. I think they were supposed to be like butterflies because the program at the start was called monarch, but they looked more like beetles to me. I found some design art and sketches of the MUTOs online, and I’m glad I did, because I had very little idea what those things properly looked like. While I appreciated the attempt at ambiance and dramatic lighting, it made it so couldn’t see anything in this movie.

As far as characters go, I was upset that Joe died. He was my favorite character. I wanted to see how he would’ve interacted with the crazy main scientist who flew all the way out to see Godzilla fight in person. Instead, we get Lieutenant Ford, who the whole time talked about how his job was disarming bombs, and not once in movie actually disarms a bomb. I also felt like his family was useless, only there to give him a reason to go back home. There was very little development of his wife outside of her worrying about him. Godzilla wasn’t in the movie enough for me to care much about him much either.

Not having kaiju knowledge, I went into the movie genuinely thinking Godzilla was the bad guy who destroyed towns. However, he ended up being the hero. My dad confirmed that was the case in the other movies too. That was pleasantly surprising. I understood him fighting harder to defeat the female because she was a threat, and required fire breath to eventually kill. But why did Godzilla play with his food, when he could just murder the male MUTO with one sweep of his tail? I’m sure this was like any movie though, drawing out a fight to make it dramatic. I was cheering by the end when Godzilla wasn’t dead after the fight. Despite his lack of screen time, I really did leave liking Godzilla.

Snow Way Out Of Here (Snow review)

Snow by Ronald Malfi

Finally another book from class to purchase and put on my shelves. This is definitely in my top three of best books we’ve read this term.

Despite the setting of the book being Christmas and the overarching theme of snow, this doesn’t feel like a holiday book to me. It doesn’t even really feel like a horror book. It reads as more of a thriller in my mind. Yes, there’s graphic details of intestines on the ground and people being torn apart, but I feel like the majority of this book more put me on the edge of my seat with the ominous hands on windows and faceless kids rather than giving me nightmares. That being said however, anyone else concerned going to Pennsylvania in winter because of all the snow?

The snow particle preying mantis creatures were amazing. I loved the traversal aspect of them. They could disappear into the ground, move mounds of snow, be storms in the sky, or even flecks of ice sneaking in through a vent or an open window. These creatures would be great monsters to fight in video games. I like that the creatures were left vague too. We don’t know much about the storms and clouds, or whether these things are aliens or something paranormal. The unknown is a known fear of humanity, and it really works well in this book.

That being said, the head hopping perspective was not the easiest to pick up on immediately because I listened to the story as an audiobook. Maybe it was more obvious in the text version, I don’t know. However, following the different characters separately really did work for me anyway. I loved seeing the different point of views and the deaths. It was definitely written with a movie camera POV vibe to it. This would be a beautiful movie, especially with all the snow special effects or animation. Normally, I say that in a negative way, as if the book isn’t great and would be better as a movie. I think they could be equal in this situation. The book did an amazing job of describing every little thing to us, from the monsters light orb souls, to their gruesome deaths and puppeting of skin suits.

Excluding the awkward dialog at the bar in the beginning, I felt like every bit of this book was taken advantage of, and even the bar scene was necessary to introduce the characters. Speaking of the characters, this is one of the few books where I actually cared about them. When Shawna died, I was legitimately sad. I was genuinely happy to see Kate and Todd survive. Despite having a ton of characters and head hopping, I remembered people, and I was interested to hear their individual stories. Much like some of the others, I found the story good enough that I’m interested to know if anyone has read other Malfi, and if any of them are good?

Overall, I’ll never look at snow the same way again. Thank goodness I live somewhere where every season is rain.