Exclusives
[Exclusive] ‘The Blob’ 1988 Director Talks Practical Effects and Second Remake
The 1980s saw the release of three standout horror remakes that are also three of the very best practical effects showcases in the genre’s entire history. First was John Carpenter’s The Thing in 1982, followed by David Cronenberg’s The Fly in 1986. Then came Dream Warriors director Chuck Russell’s The Blob, released in 1988.
With another remake of The Blob headed our way soon from director Simon West, we caught up with Russell himself to talk about both the upcoming film and the quickly fading art of practical effects. As we’ve recently told you, Russell will be appearing at Bloody Disgusting and Wizard World’s Horror Fest in Philadelphia this coming weekend, where he’ll be doing a live commentary track for Dream Warriors with star Heather Langenkamp on Saturday night. Afterwards, Russell’s remake of The Blob will be screened!
But I digress.
Having directed two ’80s horror films that are loaded with incredible practical effects, we wanted to get Russell’s take on how horror movie effects have changed over the years.
“I’m in a funny space about visual FX today vs. the eighties,” he admitted to us. “I helped perfect CGI with The Mask… But I always used CGI in careful conjunction with physical FX and the on camera actors performance. Bottom line, full CGI characters can be fascinating, but are rarely scary. Physical FX can be hit or miss, as I discovered on The Blob… But the best moments of physical FX on both the Blob and Elm Street 3 are mind blowing… even for me after all these years. CGI effects surprisingly don’t age as well. The team effort it takes to design and execute full scale physical effects is so challenging, that I think it’s easier for some directors to roll that challenge into post production CGI.”
“My approach now is to use the best of both worlds,” Russell added. “It’s great to have a choice and use your imagination to give the audiences a new experience.”
We also talked with Russell specifically about West’s remake of The Blob, asking him if he had any advice for West on the effects front.
“I’ve heard there may be another remake of the Blob,” he told us. “There was plenty I wanted to do back then that would be far easier now… But I would recommend enhancing physical FX with CGI. Full CGI will disappoint – see the final Blob creature in the charming Goosebumps movie.”
Here’s hoping West has the same mindset!
Exclusives
‘The Space Between’ Exclusive Teaser Trailer – Damian Maffei Stars in Indie Liminal Horror Movie
Liminal horror is all the rage right now in the wake of A24’s Backrooms dominating the box office, and up next from the sub-genre is the indie film The Space Between.
We recently told you that The Space Between had wrapped production inside an operational Midwestern mall, and now we’re exclusively debuting the teaser trailer today.
Damian Maffei (The Strangers: Prey At Night, Wrong Turn, Haunt) stars in The Space Between. Watch the teaser trailer below, and also find the official poster underneath.
Maffei plays Rick, an overnight security guard working inside a once-bustling shopping mall after closing. While quietly carrying the grief of losing his daughter, Rick clings to the structure of his nightly routine as a form of stability. Over the course of a single shift, that routine begins to fracture as something unseen retraces his every step.
Kate Kiddo (Black Eyed Susan, The Events Surrounding a Peeping Tom) co-stars in the liminal horror movie as Dispatch, Rick’s only point of contact during the night. She is a calm and steady voice guiding him through his rounds as the system he relies on begins to break down.
Production took place inside an operational Midwestern mall, utilizing real locations after hours to ground the film’s surveillance-driven psychological horror and liminal atmosphere. Built through a lean independent model, the production focused on performance, practical environments, and atmosphere.
Filmmakers were granted unlimited access to more than 96,000 square feet of retail, corridor, and back-of-house space for critical sequences, allowing the production to capture the scale, emptiness, and unsettling realism of a functioning mall after dark.
Writer/director Joshua Garity tells Bloody Disgusting, “The original image that helped define the internet’s idea of liminal horror was traced back to Wisconsin, and that matters because those are the kinds of spaces I grew up in. They were once the heartbeat of a community, but many of them have slowly eroded into something more unnerving. Half-empty malls that still echo with laughter, if you listen closely and strip away the fresh coats of paint. The Space Between comes from that same Midwestern familiarity. It’s not about recreating Backrooms, but about exploring why these spaces stay with you: the absence, the repetition, and the feeling that a place you know is somehow watching you back.”
The Space Between is targeting a Fall 2026 release. Stay tuned for updates.
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