Rocker-turned-writer/director Rob Zombie is moving on from his revitalization of the Halloween horror franchise to remake another classic film, 1958’s The Blob. Variety has reported that Zombie has signed a deal to write, direct and produce a remake of the film, with production slated to start as early as next spring.
A remake of The Blob has been in development almost since the last remake of the film hit theaters in 1988. Most recently, Carey W. and Chad Hayes, the scripters behind the lackluster 2005 remake House Of Wax, took a crack at the screenplay. Jack Harris, producer of the original 1958 film is on board as one the project’s producers. The film is projected to have a $30 million budget and is shooting for an R rating.
Zombie certainly seems to have found a, shall we say, unique vision for the movie. He’s not that interested in having the creature we have come to know as the Blob actually in the film.
My intention is not to have a big red blobby thing — that’s the first thing I want to change. That gigantic Jello-looking thing might have been scary to audiences in the 1950s, but people would laugh now… I’d been looking to break out of the horror genre, and this really is a science fiction movie about a thing from outer space. I intend to make it scary, and the great thing is I have the freedom once again to take it in any crazy direction I want to.
Now, I have to admit that I flew in the face of conventional wisdom in regards to Zombie’s remake of John Carpenter’s classic slasher Halloween. In Zombie’s 2007 remake he explored the tragic, abusive childhood that lead Michael Myers to become a mask-clad killer who slashed his way across the unsuspecting town of Haddonfield, Illinois. This realistic approach unfortunately didn’t gel well with the movie’s second half where Zombie recreated many scenes from the original film that feature a Michael Myers as a seemingly unstoppable, supernatural force. Many horror fans felt that Zombie’s attempt to plumb Myers’s psychology was antithetical to what Carpenter originally created.
Now I know that my stating that I think what Zombie is doing wrong here by abandoned the most core aspect of the original Blob movie will seem hypocritical. However, I think that the psychological examination of Michael Myers is a completely valid approach to the movie. It still left him a killer, it just tried to examine why he became what he was. However, how can you take “red blobby thing” out of The Blob and still have a movie you can call The Blob!??!
I’m not adverse to the idea of a remake of The Blob. There are enough stories and ideas in the concept that a new film has a good chance of being interesting in its own right. And it is not like film studio goons are going to come to our homes and remove the nice Criterion Collection DVDs of the original film from our book shelves. And while I will very likely go to a theater and see what Zombie’s vision for The Blob will be.
He just isn’t instilling much confidence for the project in me right now.
