Friday, May 10, 2013

I WAS A TEENAGE BLOB / A Look At Blob Movies from 1955-88

This is something I've wanted to do for a long time, so, in celebration of our 1600th post, here's a look at those Blob movies from 1955 to 1988! THE BLOB was not the first Blob flick, in fact, it's number 7 on my list...

Number 1 on my list is THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT aka THE CREEPING UNKNOWN from Hammer Studios, released in 1955. Spaceman Carroon eventually turns into that mass of animals he absorbed at the zoo!

The second Blob flick, X: THE UNKNOWN in 1956, comes from Hammaer Studios again, this time a radio-active mud Blob from under the earth breaks through to feast on the supply of atomic energy in Britain.

Hammer Studio's QUATERMASS 2 aka ENEMY FROM SPACE had giant Blobs being produced in huge metal domes, Quatermass is seen looking into a dome at one of them! Saw this one at the theater in 1957, one of my very favorites.

SPACE MASTER X-7 was released in June of 1958, it's about a small hunk of flesh that gets irradiated in space, it comes back to Earth and starts growing into large flesh-eating radio-active Blobs, called 'blood rust.' The still shows a rare look at the Blobs inside glass containers!

This classic Japanese flick, THE H-MAN, was also released in June of 1958! This movie has some super creepy scenes inside the death ship, the still shows one H-Man covering and digesting another unlucky human.

Get ready!.. THE SPACE CHILDREN also came out in June 1958!! That's three freakin' Blob movies all out in the same month and year, wow! That space Blob in the still is a real work of art, saw this one at the theater too.

THE BLOB came out in September of 1958, my dad took me to see it when I was just 10 years old! This movie seriously screwed with my imaginative little mind for some time after that... The theme song is too cool, had the 45!

CALTIKI THE IMMORTAL MONSTER's an awesome little flick from 1959 that Eegah!! and I saw together at the theater. The black and white photography makes it extra creepy, love this one!

We were on a roll, here's another movie Eegah!! and I saw at the theater in 1959, THE ANGRY RED PLANET, and, loved it! Famous Monsters did a kick-ass article on it too, so many great monsters. Gerald Mohr brings some dark green slime from the giant Amoeba back to Earth on his arm!

Then, we find this rarity, MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE from 1965, this poor guy contracts a fungus disease on the Moon and threatens a space station when the disease mutates into a plant-like mass! Used to have the 1 sheet, love this whacked out low budget sci-fi flick! Hard to find.

From 1968 comes this very bizarre Asian flick, GOKE, THE BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL!.. Blue Blobs crawl into his brain through that slit in his head!! Double billed with BLOODY PIT OF HORROR!

Jack H. Harris knew a good thing he had with his Blob, so, he was back in 1972 with BEWARE! THE BLOB aka SON OF BLOB. By that time, low-budget movies had mutated into pretty much, parody. Hard to get scared by old ideas with new minimalist effects.

From 1973 Mexico comes SANTO CONTRA LOS ASESINOS DE OTROS MUNDOS, the weirdest of all Blob movies! You have to see this one to believe it, jaw dropping! That ugly skeleton on the bed was a beautiful woman before the Blob rolled over her!

THE STUFF from 1985 was a weird blend of comedy, stupidity and violence, Garrett Morris has obviously been eating The Stuff!

Jack H. Harris coined this catagory of movie monsters, at least, for me. He was not kidding around with his 1988 remake of THE BLOB...

6 comments:

Ivan said...

Congratz for such undead longevity!
So many of these flicks I need to see now!
You guys rule!
Thanks!
--Ivan
(and here's my memories of The Blob and I: http://ivanlandia1.blogspot.com/2011/07/blobaliciousness-blob-i.html)

Anonymous said...

Do any of these movies have a man address the audience at the end, in a "break the 4th wall" fashion? I have a memory of watching a black and white blob based movie that ends with a suited man in a hat walking away from the defeated creature towards the camera and then says something to the audience. Does this ring a bell to anyone?

TABONGA! said...

Hi A, sounds like THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT aka THE CREEPING UNKNOWN..

tubeistdan said...

There was a blob-type movie on late-night TV in the 60's which was from the 50's era, maybe very early 60's.
All I remember about it was its being imprisoned in a sort huge vat like a water-tower, in a desert-like area, where scientists were trying to figure out how to deal with it. It bubbled horribly in its vat, but on the other hand our father and we opined it resembled a pot of cooking porridge.

It may have been susceptible to radiation, or (perhaps though I'm conflating it with the classic blob-trope) radiation/an a-bomb could make it worse... But it had something to do with atomic radiation. I believe it came from space, and may have been getting bigger. Which would match a half-dozen blobs.

That is absolutely all I can recall of it, and a dozen comprehensive lists of blob-movies don't seem to describe it. Does the description in the first paragraph ring any bells?

Unknown said...

I think one part of the anthology, Creepshow, featured a sort of flesh eating blob that lived in a lake and terrorized a group of stupid teenagers.

Anonymous said...

CREEPSHOW 2 in fact. The middle story was called THE RAFT & it was written by Stephen King. Four college age kiddos swim out to a floating white raft with a little ladder on it when a sentient & famished black oil slick traps them on it, eating them one by one.

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