Editorials
Why ‘The Thing’ and ‘The Blob’ Make for a Perfect Horror Remake Double Feature
According to some, remakes do untold damage to childhoods the world over, leaving nothing but tears, regrets, and crumpled up memories in their wake. Obviously, the idea of redoing a beloved movie is a touchy subject for film fans as the results are sometimes less than stellar. In some cases, they’re not even adequate. But horror remakes fair a little better. Specifically, ones with a creative team with something on their mind or a singular perspective.
Every week in October, I’m suggesting a double feature of remakes for your Halloween viewing pleasures. The movies are connected and never random, even if the connection is not-so-obvious at first sight. Besides the fact we’re all dying for horror to watch during the spooky season, double features are great introductions to movies for the uninitiated. And for seasoned vets, watching two movies back-to-back can sometimes put them in a different light.
So, without further ado, let’s get to the picks.
What Are the Movies?
Four movies were the impetus for this entire endeavor, and these were the top two: John Carpenter’s The Thing and Chuck Russell’s The Blob. Remember last week when I said the 80s is horror’s most hallowed decade? No need to jog your memory; I definitely said it. Anyway, these two movies are quintessential reasons why.
For the three or four of you reading this site who haven’t seen The Thing, it’s a remake of 1951’s The Thing from Another World. Like last week’s picks, Carpenter applies the basic idea about an alien attacking a group of researchers in Antarctica and creates a brand-new story that speaks to the 80s. Actually, given our current circumstances, it’s talking pretty loudly to 2020 as well. The Thing is about paranoia and distrust due to a shapeshifter that is basically, well, a virus. Coming a year after the AIDS epidemic in the United States began in earnest, it’s easy to see the movie as a parable for real-world issues.
That’s all well and good, but Rob Bottin’s special effects are the real stars of the show. Pretty sure I’m not going out on a limb when I say the effects work is a big reason the movie doesn’t look or feel even slightly dated. In horror, filmmakers usually keep monsters in the shadows. Why? Because conventional wisdom says nothing they show us is more horrifying than what we conjure in our minds. The Thing is one of, if not the greatest horror movie of all time. One reason is that it throws that conventional wisdom out of every possible window in its vicinity. The creature design goes to places my mind wouldn’t dream of, much less consciously conjure. The beauty of dealing with a shapeshifting alien is it can be anything. The titular “Thing” is a combination of every species on every planet it’s ever assimilated, allowing Bottin and his crew to go nuts. The practical effects are a spoonful of horror sugar to the film’s medicine of nihilism.
And then there’s The Blob, which feels like cotton candy confection, even without comparisons to The Thing. Trading in the ’50s Midwest small-town setting for an ’80s west coast small town, the movie is about, big surprise, an amorphous blob come to earth. Rather than make friends, it attacks this sleepy, little California town and rips apart the city’s Americana veneer. Yeah, The Blob satirizes 1950s culture while paying it homage but never forgets to be a scary movie. In what comes as a shock to no one at all, the team responsible for one of the best Freddy Krueger movies understands the perfect balance of humor, horror, and intelligence.
The movie is called The Blob for a reason, and it delivers. Obviously, the design is simple, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t scary. The creature crushes people, phone booths, people, guns, animals, and of course, more people. The blob idea is more than a little silly, but the special effects team creates something not to be laughed at even a little bit. The Blob grows and can extend tendrils. It can be in one place, like a kitchen, hiding in plain sight. It can be everywhere and nowhere all at once and only has one weakness. No, I’m not telling what the defect is because that wouldn’t be any fun. But in another testament to how well-written the movie is, the blob’s fatal flaw is “set up and payoff” at its finest.
Okay, Why These Two?
Why not these two? They’re both ’80s remakes of ’50s classics and feature some of the best practical effects in the genre, much less the decade. Both films make the ’50s relevant to the ’80s, almost as if they’re on the same wavelength. The Blob lays its more jaded 1980s worldview on top of idealism and nostalgia of the 1950s. The Thing takes a 1950s staple—alien invasions—and turns it into an unseen virus that shines a light on humanity’s worst qualities. And that light is visible even in the darkest of winter nights in the Antarctic. They’re both a lot of fun in their very own ways and stand the test of time as watershed moments.
The Thing and The Blob were dope in the ’80s, and they’re just as good in October 2020.
Maybe even better.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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