Beware! The Blob

The story goes that Larry Hagman had a week or two free, and wanted to have some fun. So...he put together a GREAT group of folks for cameos (and red jello, to boot!), and made this grade-z 'horror'! If you want to just have fun...with far more laughs than gasps...and you have 90 minutes to kill...rent it! It's right up there in the genre of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes"...

If I had not seen BEWARE!THE BLOB as an impressionable youth, maybe I could look at it as a cheezy, poorly acted, uneven special effects, campy movie. But there is something sinister going on in this flick, and untill I read a mini revue in CULT MAGAZINE I thought maybe I was just being sensitive. A follow-up to the famous original about a man eating jello from outer space, most critics said something to the effect that BEWARE! THE BLOB doesn't know if it wants to be a horror movie or a comedy, so it fails at both, but I don't agree with that sum-up. I think Larry Hagman (and, or the writers)did something unlike anything done before. In a Horror-comedy, the humor is there to relieve the horror. HERE they got it backwards! We see characters doing goofy sit-com type things, and then they get eaten by the blob! I find the mix of styles very disturbing. This movie gave me nightmares as a kid, and I still can't shake it off! I think Hagman also had a lot of contempt at the time he made this flick. The characters are usually stupid and brain dead to their surroundings, making them easy prey (they are all self-absorbed before being blob-absorbed!). I find the bowling ally attack to be very effective despite the uneven special effects. I know some of you may think I'm taking this silly movie way to seriously and, okay, maybe I am.. But now when you go to a bowling ally, or to the barbers, or sit back in your easy chair just like Godfry Cambridge did, you may just think twice.. BEWARE!

I love the original 1958 film 'The blob.' I've somehow been unaware until very recently that 1972 sequel 'Beware! The blob' existed. Frankly, ignorance was bliss, and I wish I had it back.

This movie borrows the sci-fi horror stylings of the 50s flick, yes. Some death scenes are duly unsettling, and at its best there's a measure of uneasy atmosphere and tension at times. However, it then also tries to one-up the worst indulgences of its predecessor's B-movie contemporaries with awful, unfunny ham-handedness that closely resembles mid-century TV shows like 'The Munsters,' 'Batman,' or 'The Partridge Family' more than anything else. Couple this with astounding, blithe inauthenticity in the characters, dialogue, and scene writing - and not least in the acting. There's not one trace of sincerity in anyone's performances; if I didn't know any better I'd say they were drunk or high every time the camera was rolling, or had never been in front of a camera before and couldn't suppress a nervous smile. If not for tasteless scenes of animals getting eaten by the blob, then I'd be cheering for the ooze just in the hope that all the characters go away - and then the cast, crew, and filmmakers, in turn.

'Beware!' wants to be an extra gauche and campy horror-comedy, but it also wants to offer earnest disquiet as the blob advances. Both strains fall apart owing to the confounding lack of care that anyone put into the project. I hate to fall back on 'Manos: The hands of fate' as a point of comparison, but it's a worthwhile one here, because for all the faults of Harold P. Warren's no-budget infamy, at least in that instance everyone involved poured genuine effort into their contributions. This could have been fun, one way or another, but the picture we get is a mess where the appearance of the creature seems to be the only aspect consistently deserving of praise. Maybe I'm just not properly attuned to this level of kitsch, yet the fact that this 1972 feature is strongest where it echoes its 1958 antecedent - and emphatically weakest when its own flavors are infused - says much. If only it could have found one steady tone; even the climax and ending, which seem so promising at first, can't completely avoid the wild, unwieldy oscillation.

Sure, I've seen worse movies. So what? One could watch this in recognition of what it does irregularly do well - or my suggestion would be to just rewatch the 1958 movie, because that's why you're here in the first place. 'Beware! The blob' is a sad instance of a sequel that we honestly just didn't need.

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 Haig

All 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.

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.