What good is a classic horror movie if you can’t reinvent it a couple of times to fit a more modern audience? I don’t ask that question to be facetious, as when it’s done right, you can take one of the best horror movies, like Hellraiser, and reinvigorate it for today’s viewer. Director David Bruckner did just that with his reboot of Clive Barker’s legendary tale, and now he’s set to reimagine The Blob for Warner Bros, which has me all in from the start.
The news came from The Wrap, which is reporting that The Night House director is currently set to write and helm another reboot to Irvin Yeaworth’s 1958 classic starring Steve McQueen. As usual, there’s not many details to reveal about the story for the third coming of The Blob; however, the basics are presumed to be in place. Meaning, we’re going to see another story about an organism that crash lands on Earth, starts eating people and becomes a gigantic unstoppable blob.
Again, I’m not being snarky here, because that’s what the original movie was all about, and it worked. Not to mention, The Blob’s 1988 re-imagination, through the powers of writer Frank Darabont and director Chuck Russell, is still one of the best examples that proves how such an exercise can work to the world’s advantage.
In that version of Blob history, Cold War undertones and extreme ‘80s gore made for an amazingly dark refresh on a picture that had already gained a following. With kills that are so iconic it’d be a shame to ruin them, The Blob lived again in its previous remake and became an equal to its mythic predecessor. Just watch the trailer for this beauty, and behold:
However, that’s only part of why I’m excited for David Bruckner’s take, and this is fully considering the knowledge that a Blob remake has been in the works for years. Admittedly, the other reason is the hiring of Bruckner himself, especially thanks to his recent horror pedigree.
Most recently, David directed the Hulu subscription-driver known as the Hellraiser re-imagining. Proving that his directorial vision was a perfect fit to bring Pinhead into the modern era, just imagining what David Bruckner could do with The Blob is already a fantastic possibility. Between that film and his superb horror thriller The Night House, we know that Mr. Bruckner can do deliberate horror that is as drenched in atmosphere as it is blood.
Now with The Blob, we can see his take on large scale, intergalactic terror rampaging for all to see. It’s the kind of scaling we’ve seen in the past with director Adam Wingard, who went from street level delights like The Guest to rompin’ stompin’ Titanic thrills such as Godzilla vs. Kong. It may be early to get this excited about a new Blob hitting town, but considering the factors mentioned above, can you blame me?
Unfortunately the 1988 remake of The Blob is not available for streaming. However, if you want to throw it back to the 1958 Steve McQueen-starring original, all you need is a Max subscription to dig into the terror. And if the mention of the MonsterVerse has you primed for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, don’t worry. That film is still on track to premiere on the 2024 movie schedule starting April 12.