- Directed by Chuck Russell
- Written by Theodore Simonson, Kay Linaker, Irvine H. Millgate
- Stars Shawnee Smith, Kevin Dillon, Donovan Leitch
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq0our4mceQ
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A true reboot of the 1958 original that follows the story very closely. They even went with adults playing high schoolers again. It’s dialed up to ten by comparison though with a lot more violence, gore, and scares. The practical effects still hold up really well, and overall it’s very entertaining.
Synopsis
As credits roll, we see shots of what appears to be an abandoned town. We see that it’s abandoned because almost everyone is at the high school football game. Paul gets the winning touchdown while Meg is the cheerleader he likes. Elsewhere Brian Flagg is a badass; we can tell because he throws a beer can into nature and rides off on his motorcycle; he crashes cause he’s really a loser.
Back in town, Sheriff Herb Geller and Fran Hewitt, the restaurant server, flirt and talk about when the tourists will show up for ski season soon. Outside, Herb warns Brian that he’s about to turn eighteen and will be tried as an adult for his next infraction. Brian talks to mechanic Moss about how the past few years hasn’t had any snow, and the town is nearly bankrupt. And borrows tools to fix his cycle.
Scott goes to the drugstore to buy condoms, and the reverend is right behind him in line. The reverend and the druggist aren’t at all judgmental, but Scott blames it all on Paul. Turns out the pharmacist is Meg’s father, which goes awkwardly when Paul picks her up for their date.
Out in the woods, the homeless man watches a meteorite crash nearby. Very nearby. He goes to investigate and pokes the glowing rock with a stick. Something gooey comes out and gets on his hand. Brian runs into the man, who seems to be out of his mind in pain. Paul and Meg run into the crazy man on the street with Paul’s car. The trio drives the man to the hospital.
A bit later, Paul notices the man has been halfway eaten by the thing. Paul calls the sheriff and is almost immediately absorbed into the blob himself, leaving only an arm behind. The sheriff and Deputy Bill want to catch the perpetrator, and Brian is an easy target. Meg tells them all what she saw, but no one really believes her.
Scott and Vicki are making out the car. He gets out to get more drinks out of the trunk and doesn’t see the blob crawl into the open door. Vicki appears to be asleep, so Scott unbuttons her blouse and finds that there’s something in there that he wasn’t expecting. The now-much-larger blob goes into the sewers to head toward town.
The police interrogate Brian, but the sheriff realizes he couldn’t have done all that to the homeless man or Paul. They turn him loose, and Meg picks him up on the street outside. He doesn’t believe her story either. Brian and Meg go to Fran’s place for some food, and the sheriff heads over there for his late date with Fran. George the dishwasher works hard to unclog the sink until something really nasty comes up. Suddenly Brian and Fran are believers.
Brian and Meg hide in the freezer, and the thing quickly retreats after trying to get under the door. Fran calls the sheriff’s station from the pay phone, and the blob engulfs the whole booth, with her in it. Just before the end, she sees the sheriff– inside the blob. Reverend Meeker sees the blob slurp into the sewer again, then goes into the smashed-up diner to see if anyone needs help and finds a few pieces of frozen blob that broke off in the freezer threshold – glittering as crystals – which he puts into a jar.
Meg and Brian go into the woods to find Deputy Bill, but they find government scientists and soldiers instead, led by kindly Dr. Meadows. He’s looking for killer germs from the meteor. They are put under quarantine. Brian jumps out of the moving truck, but Meg goes along for the ride.
In town, at the movie theater, Meg’s brother and his friend are watching a Friday the 13th ripoff when the blob oozes into the projection booth and kills the projectionist.
Back in town, the government is rounding up everyone and putting them in quarantine.
At the theater, things go haywire, and there’s a stampede. Meg and the two kids get out of the theater, but end up having to flee to the sewer.
Brian hides and watches the scientists, who reveal that the meteorite was an American satellite that contained biological samples. Dr. Meadows remarks how their little virus is all grown up now. This was a biological weapons test which has gotten out of hand. He learns that Dr. Meadows isn’t such a nice guy after all. Capturing the creature alive is priority, the townspeople are expendable.
The army decides that there are three main junctions in the sewers, and all they have to do is seal off all three to trap it down there. Meg loses her brother’s little friend to the monster, which is now huge. She runs into Brian, and the two play tag with the blob and military guys in the maze of sewers. They eventually get up out onto the street.
Suddenly, there’s a standoff between Brian, Deputy Bill, and some of the military. Meadows tries telling Bill and the public standing around that Brian is infected and needs to be locked up. Brian points out Meadow’s lies that don’t add up. Just then, the blob tentacles up out of the sewer and eats Meadows in front of everyone. Now that they know the truth and the boss is dead, the army guys do what they can to kill the creature. A barrage of gunfire and explosives into the tunnel will take care of the problem, right?
Nope. This only angers the blob, which surges right up through the pavement and goes on a rampage down Main Street. Guns don’t help. A flamethrower doesn’t go well at all. Meg uses a fire extinguisher on the reverend and puts it together that the creature doesn’t like the cold. Reverend Meeker is badly burned in the chaos and huddles, babbling that this is the end time, it’s all been prophesied.
Brian goes back to Moss’s garage and steals the snow-making machine and starts hosing down the blob with the frozen mix. That slows it down until it flips the truck. Meg grabs some explosives from a dying soldier and sets the timer to blow up the cold chemical tanks. When the bomb goes off, the creature is frozen solid into a pile of glittering crystals. Meg and Brian embrace; a happy ending.
Some time later, in summer, we see the scarred Reverend Meeker doing a tent sermon, warning the end is coming. He still has a sample of the blob in his jar, so he knows it will be soon.
Commentary
It’s a lot more violent than the 1958 original, that’s for sure. It’s faster moving and less talky than the original, but still mostly keeps to the same story outline. It’s an updated remake without being a reboot, re-imagining, or anything stupid like that. It’s just an updated retelling of the same basic story. About the only really new plot element is the biological warfare angle, but that really doesn’t have a huge effect on the plot.
The creature here is much more lively, with tentacles and arms rather than just being a blob of jelly. This was still in the age of practical effects, but it’s much more effective than the original.
It’s good.