The Blob Gets Blogged at the Hotel Floyd
Joe and I watched the Red Sox win the World Series and The Blob simultaneously on two of the three flat screen TVs in the Hotel Floyd Writer’s Suite this weekend. Mostly he watched the Red Sox and I watched the Blob and we periodically visited each other. Besides The Blob – the 1958 B movie that became a cult attraction after its star, Steve McQueen, became famous – there were other gory movies being shown for Halloween. Being the type that has to cover my eyes when people are eating live hearts and such, we didn’t spend too much time on those. The Blob was scary enough, especially since I had previously grooved pathways of fear in my nervous system for the story. I was eight years old when I first saw it. It must have been in black and white back then because the blob I remember was black and this one was red.
So the blob comes out of a meteorite that falls from out of space. It gets stuck on a man’s arm and grows to the point of dissolving him. Then it goes around killing people in the small Pennsylvania town where the meteorite landed, growing bigger with every body it assimilates. Steve McQueen saves himself and the day when he discovers that the one thing that stops The Blob is cold. The blob covers a diner with Steve McQueen and others inside. They stop it by spraying it with CO2 fire extinguishers.
At the end of the movie the frozen blog is being airlifted by the Air force to Arctic. The town cop turns to Steve and says that nothing can kill the blob but it will stay frozen in the Arctic. Steve answers that every thing will be alright as long as the Artic stays cold.
I turned to Joe and said, “Oh oh. They don’t know about global warming.”
The next day I blogged about the blob on my laptop at the Writer’s Suite kitchen table.
Post note: In Phoenixville Pennsylvania, where The Blob was filmed, an annual Blob Fest is held, which includes a re-enactment of the scene in which moviegoers run screaming out of the town’s Colonial Theatre after seeing the blob.
Comments
Wow, they had never heard of global warming and I never heard of blob! Then, of course, it may not fit into my favorite kind of movie, butt as an occasion around the Halloween, I might reconsider... *ghostly giggles*
May you have a Happy Halloween filled with scary fun!
Welcome to Lifecruisers Cyber Halloween Party!
Mr Butcher is awaiting to serve a lot of scared guests with malicious moth watering dishes!
Everybody is welcome and take all your scary monsters with you!!!!!
The party is going on until witching hour.
Make sure you come here holding your ghoul friends hand and be sure to read the haunted house rules properly!
...and make sure to come back later when the night creatures has crawled up from their graves.....
*mwuuuaaaaaahaahahaa*
Posted by: captain lifecruiser | October 31, 2007 11:32 AM
I've been to Blobfest in Phoenixville, PA and watched The Blob in the Colonial -- the very theatre that everyone runs screaming from in the movie. So cool! I've even seen the real Blob (it's just a bunch of red goo in a bucket, since most of the scenes with the blob were shot with miniatures.)
Whenever I think of Steve McQueen, I always think of The Blob.
Posted by: Jeanne | October 31, 2007 11:32 AM
Lovely post. You gotta love these movies! I've only seen some fragments of it, but I'll look for it now. Thanks, Colleen.
Posted by: Vesper | October 31, 2007 12:24 PM
Wouldn't it be fun if programming from one TV invaded the other TV? I can just see the Blob coming over the Green Monster at Fenway Park!
Posted by: June | October 31, 2007 2:52 PM
Ha! What a wicked idea, June. (Wicked can mean awesome in this case or not since it's Halloween).
Posted by: colleen | October 31, 2007 2:55 PM
I watched a bit of the Blob the other day on TV but it was the remade on with the Dillion kid. Not Matt but his little brother. I love horror films...well I used to. I had seen everything as a teen. Now they are so gross...like the Saw series that I can't really bear the terror. I don't know what happened to suspense. Now they just kill you in some way you'd never thought of but would really suck and hurt to go that way!
Happy Halloween to you and Joe!
Posted by: Deana | October 31, 2007 3:55 PM
My sister Sherry and I would watch the goriest axe murdering movies at the drive-in when we were young. I think I liked them more than her, but I can't look any more. Did we grow out of it or grow up?
Posted by: colleen | October 31, 2007 3:59 PM
I loved gory stuff when I was a kid too. The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes comes to mind. The 50 Foot Woman ... blah blah ... but now, I prefer to be more genuinely scared than grossed out. I recall The Blob so well! Funny that they celebrate it in that town ... I'd love to participate in something so silly! Happy Halloween Colleen and oh yes! Begrudingly, I congratulate you on your fellah's cleaning house in the series! *wink*
Posted by: WearyHag | October 31, 2007 4:48 PM
I don't know what a Blob is I only know Blog, lol ! I also know that the oldest Blogger an australian lady of 107 years old calls her Blog Blob. I came from Mrs. Lifecruiser for the Halloween party !
Posted by: Gattina | October 31, 2007 5:03 PM
I get a big kick out this Coll......do you remember the bus broke down from Hingham when we all saw the movie. That happened in the movie too. Ma & Dad had to come and get us. We were all petrified........especially me. I was only 5.
Posted by: Sherry | October 31, 2007 5:13 PM
Oh, we watched it too! And funny thing, I kept looking at the blob, and thinking, I don't remember it being red. It was rather more like a giant angry cranberry pudding. I distinctly remember black ooze! lol
I had no idea about the festival, and the reenactment of the theatre exodus cracked me up.
~S
Posted by: Shephard | October 31, 2007 5:19 PM
P.S.
I wrote a poem today (he says, inviting the talented poetess for a visit).
~S
Posted by: Shephard | October 31, 2007 5:20 PM
Sherry, I don't remember anything about the bus breaking down and you being there. What in heck was a five year old seeing a movie like that? Was it at the Loring Hall? A bus broke down in the movie?
Posted by: colleen | October 31, 2007 6:32 PM
So you're sort of testing the writer's room to see how it is for inspiration?
Posted by: Ruth | October 31, 2007 8:29 PM
I don't think I realized or remembered that there were two "Blob" pictures made....The one I am familiar with was the first one---The Black & White one...I'll have to look both of them up an IMDB.com.....
Glad you enjoyed those clips, Colleen...I found them pretty Hilarious, myself...!
Alo: Are there two TV's in the Hotel Room? I was trying to figure out how Joe was watching The Red Sox and you were watching "THE BLOB" at the same time on different sets and still be in the same room...LOL!
Ahhhhh, the 21st Century...Amazing, isn't it!
Posted by: OldOldLady Of The Hills | October 31, 2007 11:31 PM
There are three TV sets! It's a suite and there is one in each bedroom and one in the living area. I'll have to see if I can make that clearer.
Posted by: colleen | October 31, 2007 11:34 PM