The Blob (1958)

The Blob (a.k.a. The Molten Monster) is a movie from 1958 that has risen to cult status partly because it starred Steve McQueen before he became famous, and partly because it almost perfectly exemplifies the era of sci-fi B movies. The Blob itself is a creature from another planet. A group of teenagers discover the Blob, but the townspeople don't believe them until it is almost too late.

Plot
The film takes place during one long night in a small rural Pennsylvania town in July 1957. Teenager Steve Andrews and his girlfriend Jane Martin are kissing on a lovers' lane, when they see a meteorite crash beyond the next hill. Steve decides to look for it. An old man, who lives nearby, finds it first. When he pokes the meteorite with a stick, it breaks open and the small jelly-like blob inside attaches itself to his hand. In pain and unable to scrape or shake it loose, the old man runs onto the road, where he is nearly struck by Steve's car. Steve and Jane take him to Doctor Hallen.

Doctor Hallen is about to leave for a medical conference, but anesthetizes the man and sends Steve and Jane back to the impact site to gather more information. Hallen decides, he must amputate the man's arm since it is being consumed by the growing Blob. Before he can, however, the Blob completely consumes the old man, then Hallen's nurse, and finally the doctor himself, all the while increasing in size.

Steve and Jane return to the office in time for Steve to witness the doctor's death. They go to the police station and return to the house with Lieutenant Dave and Sergeant Bert. However, there is no sign of the creature or its victims and Bert dismisses Steve's story as a teenage prank. Steve and Jane are taken home by their parents, but they later sneak out.

In the meantime, the Blob continues to consume people. It grows in size every time it consumes something. At the Colonial Theater, which is showing a midnight screening of Daughter of Horror, Steve recruits Tony and some of his friends to warn people about the menace. When Steve notices that his father's grocery store is unlocked, he and Jane go inside. The janitor is nowhere to be seen. Then the couple are cornered by the Blob; they seek refuge in the walk-in icebox. The Blob oozes in under the door but retreats. Steve and Jane gather their friends and set off the town's fire and airraid alarms. The townspeople and police still refuse to believe Steve. Meanwhile, the Blob enters the Colonial Theater and engulfs the projectionist before oozing into the auditorium consuming an unknown number of people. Steve is finally vindicated, when screaming people flee from the theater.

Jane's young brother, Danny, fires at the Blob with his cap gun before running into the nearby diner. Jane, Danny, and Steve become trapped in that diner, along with the manager and a waitress. The Blob, now an enormous red mass from the people it consumed, engulfs the diner. Dave has a connection made from his police radio to the diner's phone, telling those in the diner to get into the cellar before they try to bring a live power line down onto the Blob.

When it sounds quiet over the phone line, Bert shoots the wire, It falls onto the Blob, but the Blob is unaffected and the diner is set ablaze. The manager uses a CO2 fire extinguisher on the fire. Steve notices that it also causes the Blob to recoil. Then he remembers that the creature also retreated from the freezer. Shouting in hopes of being picked on the open phone line, Steve manages to tell Dave about the Blob's vulnerability to cold temperatures and therefore to CO² extinguishers. Jane's father, Mr. Martin, (Elbert Smith), knows there are twenty such extinguishers at the school, and leads Steve's friends to the high school to retrieve them. Returning, the brigade of extinguisher-armed students and police first drive the Blob away from the diner and then freeze it, saving Steve, Jane and the others.

Dave requests an Air Force heavy-lift cargo plane to transport the Blob to the Arctic, where it is parachuted to the ice as the film ends with a question mark.

Production
Most of the movie was filmed in 1957 at at Valley Forge Films Studios, Valley Forge, PA. The rest of it was filmed in the towns of Chester Springs, Downingtown, Phoenixville, and Royersford.

Reception
It was premiered in Los Angeles on September 10th, 1958. It was not very well received by critics at that time when it was released. However, since it was still a clear commercial success, a sequel of the film was made later.

In today's times the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 66% approval rating based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 6.27/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "In spite of its chortle-worthy premise and dated special effects, The Blob remains a prime example of how satisfying cheesy B-movie monster thrills can be".

Legacy
The Blob was remade in 1988 and was originally scheduled for a second remake in 2011 directed by Rob Zombie, but it was cancelled.

The movie was referenced in Goosebumps, mentioning Steve McQueen as well.