Beware! The Blob (1972)

Baffling and barely competent, "Beware! The Blob" (aka "Son of Blob") is the belated low-budget sequel to the 1958 Steve McQueen classic that nobody asked for. Directed in an off-the-cuff nature by first-time director Larry Hagman (aka J.R. of "Dallas" fame), the titular ooze makes its way across a small town after being unwittingly unleashed by a careless oil-worker. Corny, hokey and -- as it would turn out -- mostly improvised, it would prove to be Hagman's final film. Watching it today, it is all too obvious why. Within the first five minutes, a ridiculous and slightly meandering tone is set that unfortunately plagues the film until its end. Granted, the film does generate a bit of incidental fun and good humor ("Can I have my lighter back? Can I have my lighter back?") as it plods along, but even the most generous of viewers may have trouble making it to the finish line. The film is low, low (almost no) budget, and the cast is mostly made up of other familiar TV faces/friends of the director. No one appears to be taking the whole thing seriously, which gives the audience permission to do the same. Problem is, you won't have even a fraction of the fun watching this as the cast and crew had making it. On the upside, the blob's effects are (mostly) convincing. Nobody -- neither kitten not cool-cat hippies -- is safe from the amorphous antagonist, and you may be surprised to find that cinematographer Dean Cundey ("Halloween," "Jurassic Park") had a hand in the special effects. Sometimes it appears as if the slimy scoundrel really is covering cars and coming out of sinks, and sometimes it just looks like strawberry jelly smeared across somebody's face. Lower your expectations and maybe, just maybe, you can have some fun with "Beware! The Blob." Otherwise, just give the original or the 1988 remake a go instead.

The only thing horrifying about this movie is that it got greenlighted, backed, and filmed: It's more horrendous than horrifying.I have never given a zero rating before as I try to find good in everything, though no matter how hard I tried I couldn't do it with this travesty of a movie.The story of The Blob's return is told in a series of skits and sketches, which are meant to be humorous and scary... Unfortunately, the writer Jack A Harris (who produced the film) and screenwriters Anthony Harris and Jack Woods evidently couldn't grasp either concept as the laughs are on the audience who paid good money to watch this, which is the only horrific idea related to the film. Not having read Richard Clair's story "A Chip Off The Old Blob!" (which is also a much better and funny title for a comedy horror movie) I cannot say if these traits stem from here.Then they give the directors hat to Larry "JR Ewing" Hagman. Though he'd directed five TV episodes this was his first full-length movie and it shows. It could also be the reason he never went back to directing for the big screen.Another shock was to see some big'ish names appearing in cameo roles... Robert Walker Jr, Carol Lynley, Shelley Berman, Cindy Williams, Burgess Meredith, Dick Van Patton, and even Sid HaigAll these names do not a good film make. Instead of watching this movie, go paint that bedroom you've been putting off and then grab a chair and watch that paint dry, you'll have a more entertaining and productive time.

I watched this film on Amazon Prime in a fine-looking high definition print, so it's a pity that the quality of the film itself wasn't any better. BEWARE! THE BLOB is a sequel to the 1950s monster movie classic that took 13 years to get made and after watching you'll wish they hadn't bothered. This movie was bizarrely directed by future DALLAS star Larry Hagman who also has a cameo as one of three tramps alongside stand-up comedian Del Close (who would go on to play the priest in the BLOB remake) and Burgess Meredith.The film itself is quite well mounted and the special effects are a step up from those in the original film, although certainly nowhere near as good as in the 1988 remake. What fails is the script, which goes for a jokey, comic approach through. To say that the humour is forced is an understatement, and the viewer has to wade through endless exaggerated performances in order to get to the fun monster attack scenes. They should have just played it straight and allowed the viewer to find their own laughs as in the original movie. The end result is more of a cult item than anything else.

Halfway between playing Major Nelson and J.R. Ewing on television, Larry Hagman found the time to direct this low-budget sequel to the 1958 schlock horror classic that first put Steve McQueen on the map. The tone is somewhere between an Attack of the Killer Tomatoes-like parody (though several years prior to that film)and a straightforward monster-on-the-loose thriller. Although never truly scary, there are a few nice moments, including a climax that essentially recreates the classic movie theater scene from the original but resets it in a crowded bowling alley. Mostly it's fun to try and spot the many well-known actors who appear throughout, including Godfrey Cambridge and Carol Lynley as town locals; comedian Shelley Berman as a hair stylist; Dick Van Patten as a Boy Scout leader; and Burgess Meredith and Hagman himself (nearly unrecognizable) as a pair of hobos. Young Cindy Williams (pre-Laverne & Shirley and American Graffiti) plays a dope-smoking hippie chick, while character actor Richard Stahl gives a great slow-burn comic performance as the bowling alley owner. If you're a fan of the original or just enjoy early-'70s drive-in creature features, you may have some fun taking a look at this.