It’s rare that a remake is able to: 1) Capture the essence of the original. 2) Tell the original story but with a clever twist. 3) Improve on nearly every aspect of the original. The Blog (1988) does all three admirably and that’s saying something considering the original The Blog (1958) is a horror classic.
The creature effects are the best part of the remake, giving real threat to the blog of gel that is overtaking the town and killing people. There are deformed humans trapped in the blog, decaying inside, ingenious severed limb tricks, and some awesome makeup effects. The acting isn’t bad either with Shawnee Smith having a nice little character arc as a cheerleader turned monster killer and Kevin Dillon doing his best bad boy turned good impression.
There’s an undercurrent of humor (typical of many of the best 1980’s horror films) that keeps things fun despite all the dying and dismemberments. This one’s a late 80’s gem. A campy horror film that’s both an homage to the original drive-in horror movies and yet still holds up quite well today.