In the decades since its release, The Blob has become shorthand for a distinct brand of sci-fi kitsch. Which is understandable: its colorful malt shop locations and cast of teenage fortysomethings place it pretty firmly of its era, and its tongue-in-cheek theme song (written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David!) has become a staple of corny Halloween parties. But there’s another reason the film’s legacy remains: more than many of its peers, it remains damn effective.

Much of this is thanks to the titular mass of protoplasm. In the first half of the twentieth century, movie monsters were almost all played by actors in prosthetics (with the occasional stop-motion creature), and largely drew from three wells of inspiration: folklore and literature (most of the classic Universal canon), cryptozoology (King Kong, The Creature from the Black Lagoon), and, by the fifties, nuclear paranoia (Godzilla, The Amazing Colossal Man). The Blob, on the other hand, was different. With no arms, legs, face, or any other recognizable features, the monster owes more to Lovecraftian modes of terror (or, as producer Irwin Yeaworth later admitted, the logo for Sherwin Williams). The special effects are simple, to be sure — they can easily be replicated by pushing some jelly through an air vent — but effective in a way that rubber suits could rarely be. People think they remember The Blob because it’s hokey. In actuality, they remember it because it works.

Well, okay, there is one other reason: the charismatic lead teen rebel, played by a then-unknown actor credited as Steven McQueen. In a post-Jason world, it’s difficult to remember a time when horror movies were not commonly targeted at teenagers, but in the fifties, the very concept of the teenager was relatively new. Movie monsters were largely taken down by square-jawed scientists and aristocrats until 1957, when American International Pictures had the cockeyed idea of mashing up The Wolf Man with Rebel Without a Cause. The result, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, changed the horror business model forever, and launched the career of a babyfaced Michael Landon. In McQueen, the producers of The Blob found a lead who not only topped Landon, but James Dean himself. While the script isn’t exactly Bullitt or The Great Escape, McQueen’s persona is already fully formed, and despite being nearly thirty at the time, he exudes teenage cool. There’s a reason for that hilariously tacked-on bit at the end of the trailer.

All that said, it may seem surprising that the Coolidge is screening a film about a sentient, building-eating mass of protoplasm as part of their long-running Science on Screen series. But, as any Boston historian will tell you, it’s not as far-fetched as you might think. Before the screening, journalist Ferris Jabr will be on hand to discuss the Boston Molasses Flood, the infamous 1921 disaster in which a storage tank ruptured in the North End, killing 21 people in a massive wave of gelatinous goo. So the next time your Halloween playlist kicks on a swanky number about a threat that creeps and leaps, remember: it could happen to you.

The Blob
1958
dir. Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.
86 min.

Part of the ongoing series: Science on Screen
Journalist Ferris Jabr in person!