User reviews

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.

There's something strange about this follow up to the blob,even though it's credited to hagman as director it feels like he was ditched in the final half hour to someone who knew what they were doing the first two thirds are tediously improvised and geniounly dull whereas the final half hour racks up the tension and is actually well shot reminiscent of john carpenter it's no surprise to see dean cundey had a hand in this picture lush blues and reds and dark shadows,based on what's seen on screen a major part in how this film ended up being realised on screen.

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.

OK, I don't know why people knock this movie. I saw this when I was a kid, and it genuinely scared the crap out of me. I watch it now, and it still gives me the creeps in some scenes, the hippie getting his (final) haircut, for example.

I think Larry Hagman made this movie just to have some fun, and it clearly shows. I mean come on, where else are you going to see Burgess Meredith (God rest his soul) as a hippie? Some of the scenes were just plain hilarious, such as the scenes with Dick van Patten and the Boy Scouts, for example. Watching him talk to Lisa in the beginning, and getting annoyed at the scouts because of the "Kerbangers" later on, were terrific. I would have liked to have seen what happened to his character, but I guess we can figure it out for ourselves, eh?

Like I said, it looks like Larry and company had a lot of fun.

Give it a chance, and check it out. You won't be disappointed.

Kevin

The Blob from 1958 is back, courtesy of pipe-layer Godfrey Cambridge who collected the killer substance at the North Pole and brought it back home to have it examined (he's the Blob's fourth victim, following a housefly, a kitten and his unsuspecting wife). Actor Larry Hagman, who had previously directed a few episodes from TV shows, makes his feature directorial debut here--it was also his last such effort for the movies (for which we can probably be thankful). One suspects Hagman might have taken on this low-budget, low-brow project just to get his directing resume kick-started, yet he shows absolutely no talent for the job. The Blob looks better dripping down from the roof of a car than it does bobbling up to a farmhouse or sitting dead still in the middle of the road. Hagman tries keeping the scenario light, with joshing segues to overzealous scout master Dick Van Patten and a naked guy on the run after the Blob invaded his bathroom. Still, the cast of familiar character actors looks mighty embarrassed, and there's nothing very clever about the dialogue, the plot or the finale. * from ****

It truly saddened me to see a great star like Burgess Meredith in this compete failure of a movie. It wasn't funny. It wasn't comical.

Bad acting at its total worse. One star, don't watch it and waste your time.

In the first movie, cold shrank the blob. They did a good job on the first version but this movie had such bad acting it was beyond comparing it to any other movie.

Okay, it's a lousy wannabe horror film that couldn't decide if it wanted to be a comedy or a thriller. But this sequel to The Blob has something that no other film can boast: Randy Stonehill and Larry Norman make their screen debut! It's a must-see for Stonehill and Norman fans, or those who (like me) love to bash the worst of the worst. SEE Randy Stonehill sing inside a drainpipe! HEAR Cindy Williams flub her lines repeatedly! WATCH as the Blob returns to terrorize young kittens romping merrily through the field! This is great fun for those who love pain in the form of *bad* movies. If you are just looking for a good movie to watch, however, run the other direction. Quickly.

"We're gonna go discover acoustics..."

i'm just saying...

I remember this film being a lot better when I saw it as a kid. Now I know better.

Anyway, this was a sequel to the classic 1958 movie with Steve McQueen. A chunk of the original blob is brought home by an expendable black guy. The Blob immediately proceeds to eat his cat, his wife and then him before being discovered by the hapless kids who try to warn everyone of the danger.

While the McQeen version was played as straight drama, this one is played for comedy. Except it wasn't funny. Instead, what you have is a lot of vignettes with eccentric characters who seem largely oblivious to what is happening around them or anything they might have picked up in acting school. The movie ends with the blob being trapped in a skating rink before someone turns on the ice machine and freezes it.

Bad cinematography, bad acting (even by the good actors like Dick van Patten and an uncredited Burgess Meredith).

This terribly amateurish and totally redundant sequel to the classic Steve McQueen movie "The Blob" is somewhat enjoyable, but ONLY if you have a high tolerance for irredeemably bad B-movies. There aren't many links with the original film (apart that it plays on TV at one moment), the budget was even tinier this time and most of the time the script appears to be penned down by a kindergarten class. Just listen to the abysmal choice of music or some of the dialogs: "Oh Chester, you really are dingeling!" What the hell? Anyways, a construction worker brings back a sample of frozen blob from his last working trip to Antartica – apparently he builds pipelines there – and his nagging wife accidentally thaws it. The interstellar jello pudding rapidly increases in size as it feeds on cute little cats and simple minded country folks. I never even knew there was a sequel to "The Blob", but at least now I understand why it's such a well-kept secret. It's a movie put together by weirdos! Moreover, the biggest weirdo is the guy in the director's chair and he even became a huge TV-phenomenon during the 80's by starring as J.R. in the legendary soap "Dallas". Unbelievable! Especially since it looks like he was in a constant state of drunkenness while making this film. Once the blob escapes from its jar, it only consumes the oddest people imaginable, like hippies that think it's normal to pay 400 Dollar for a regular haircut, voyeuristic coppers and fat naked guys that enjoy taking a bath with their dog! The only reasonable explanation would be that director JR Hagman absolutely HATED the original and exclusively intended to ridicule it by spawning a demented sequel. There sure is strange stuff to find out there in obscure movie land, but it's probably for the best that you just never search for them...

Roger Corman once mentioned in an interview something to the effect that when he looked in on the filming of a comedy, he knew everything was all right if the cast and crew were joking and laughing and having a good time. In his experience, that energy would translate to the screen and the picture would be funny and enjoyable.

Although Corman did not produce this particular picture, "Beware! The Blob" looks to me to be exemplary of this kind of thinking. The cast was obviously enjoying the experience of making the film, and we, the audience, get the benefit. A certain sense of giddy frivolity is evident.

This movie was made by Jack Harris and Larry Hagman in the 70's--the early 70's. And by golly, it shows. Many people hate this film, and part of me wants to shout, "C'mon, guys, this is great stuff! You're watching it the wrong way!" But really, this film isn't for everyone. Not everyone likes grape jelly. Or strawberry jam. And that's...okay.

I would say this sequel to the (excellent) "The Blob" is played half-seriously, and that's why I find it so strange and refreshing. Sometimes it's a raucous farce. Sometimes it's straight horror. And oddly enough for a 70's film, it seems to know when it is being one or the other, and keeps true to whatever it is at that moment. It's not nearly as badly made as many of its detractors claim.

Watch it for the pea soup-thick 70's atmosphere. You'll feel as if you've entered another world. Watch it for the inventive low-budget special effects. A few shots look pretty nice even today. Watch it for the scene with the bald would-be victim guy in the bathtub, who throws the phone through the window when he sees the gelatinous menace oozing under his bathroom door, and who is then seen running starkers through the streets, shouting, while funny music plays. "Beware! The Blob" is extremely goofy, exciting, brightly-colored fun stuff. It is extremely representative of the era in which it was made.

Trust me: There is NO movie that entertains the way this one does. See it and treat yourself to a fun bit of film!

Yes, this is a horror spoof and a seventies horror spoof at that. It is loaded with some big(okay, fairly big Hollywood names like Cindy Williams, Burgess Meredith, Carol Lynley, Larry Hagman, and others) in cameos and somewhat meatier roles. It has a feel that is directly not going for screams but laughter, but all I could muster and muffle were yawns. Director Larry Hagman chose wisely to essentially give up directing and act. There are scenes that are so dark you barely can see Burgess Meredith in his short cameo(and I might add one of the highlights of the film for me). Other scenes are even darker. The music seems to have no relationship to what is going on screen most of the time. The acting, despite having a young Gwynne Gilford and Robert Walker as leads, seems wooden and forced - particularly from Walker as well as some of the cameos. A few of the actors eat and chew their scenes with vigor: Dick Van Patten as a scout master, Godfrey Cambridge as the man who is responsible for the Blob(the monster ravaging the town in the script rather than the man responsible for this blob of a mess), Shelley Berman in a weird scene as a barber, and character actor Richard Stahl really biting off a large piece of scenery as a bowling alley owner. Stahl is the best thing in this film. The story is ludicrous as we go from one in-transitioned scene into another. Look, I know it is for fun, but a movie like this can be fun to watch too. This one certainly wasn't that for me.

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 normally love the "so bad it's good" campy B-comedy horror flicks but this one is just stupid for me to watch. Something about it that rubs me sideways. I liked the opening fine - but when The Blob grabbed the first lady it went all down hill from there. I had to turn this one off after a bit.

Larry Hagman what on earth were you thinking? You set up a few good shots but most of this I could do.

The actors are so very lame - anybody could have been in this picture and would have worked out fine.

I was hoping for some cheesy fun - but this cheese is moldy... had to throw it out.

2/10

Although this film contains many scenes that are almost surreal and over the top, not that many of them are truly fun. The producers weren't sure if they were making a horror film or a comedy, and in trying to do too much they have done far too little.

It would be hard to summarize all the ways in which this movie is offensive. 2 Jewish bowlers are eaten by the blob, last seen lifting crucifixes in the air as if to repent at the last moment. Dumb "blacks" are everywhere, and sure to be fodder for Son of Blob's maw. In fact, pretty much everyone, including the cops and the hippies, are made fun of, and this film fails to latch onto anyone as the "hero" although there is a nominal pair of teens who pop up every once and a while. They do not carry the film with one tenth the force that the original film's duo has.

Also worthy of note is the terrible photography and forceless direction. It's almost painful to watch this film, at least in the faded color print I saw.

Strangely enough, this unfunny film has a cast that includes many very talented comedians and dramatic performers, to such an extent that my friend and I were constantly seeing people popping up. For example, Burgess Meredith pops up for about 30 seconds as a bum. Cindy Williams, Arnold Stang, Dick Van Patton, and others also appear briefly, making one wonder if the producers thought of this as a lesser "Mad Mad World".

Although the film takes a lot of time building up Van Patton and another character as the villains, we don't get to see either one day. Just another offensive thing about this film, which can only claim in its defense that at least it is an equal-opportunity offender -- it exploits literally every character and allows us to empathize with none, making this Blob's streak of terror a far less memorable one.

The saddest think about watching this turkey is seeing my old childhood hero "Captain Midnight" reduced at last to playing the idiotic sheriff in this ghastly potboiler. No wonder he committed suicide later on. If I had seen this film -- to use the term charitably -- back in the 60s when I was doing a lot of drugs it might have been fun; straight, it just is terrible. However, if you're in a "Killer Tomatoes" or "Plan 9" kind of mood, it could still be fun, especially if you have friends in to help you laugh.

Great kudos to Larry Hagman for putting together some great cameos, and no doubt helping out some underappreciated talent that could use the work, like Del Close, whose contributions as a comedy innovator and teacher at Second City Television are, sadly, almost unknown except to the big-name stars he mentored. For those not familiar with his face, he was the psycho preacher in the remake of THE BLOB -- the one at the end who saves a piece of the creature to bring on Armageddon. Read Del Close's bio on this site. It's an extremely interesting read.

OMG the girl lead in this movie never shut up and was squealing like a pig the whole movie. Her voice made this a spine tingling movie because it went up your spine the whole time.

The movie could gave been fun if not for her.

This is a really campy but fun movie, not to be taken seriously. Robert Walker, Jr. seems to have a lot of fun making this movie, as does Larry Hagman. Obviously not as good as the original, but good enough for a B rating at any rate.

Utterly wacky, cheerfully moronic comedy sequel to a straight faced sci-fi favorite. Legendary actor Larry Hagman directs for the first and only time, for his neighbor Jack H. Harris, who'd produced the original "Blob" and had been trying for years to get a sequel made. Hagman packed the cast with friends and neighbors, leading to the impressive lineup of familiar faces.

Robert Walker Jr. and Gwynne Gilford play our sincere heroes in this story of a chunk of the Blob being transported back from the Arctic by a geologist (Godfrey Cambridge). Very soon, it's able to thaw out, and return to what it does best.

The body count is pretty good in this movie, which is occasionally funny but often tiresome. Some scenes don't seem directed so much as improvised. Some of the performances here are somewhat serious, while others are flat out silly. The special effects are variable, and Hagman does let the action eventually erupt into an entertaining feeling of chaos. The tone is established early thanks to the goofy music score composed by Mort Garson. Whatever the movie lacks in technical slickness, it makes up for that to a degree with its loose and fairly good natured quality.

The cast also includes Richard Stahl, Richard Webb, Carol Lynley, Marlene Clark, Gerrit Graham, J.J. Johnston, Rockne Tarkington, Dick Van Patten, Del Close (who also turned up in the 1988 "Blob" remake), and Cindy Williams, with cameos for Shelley Berman, Cambridge, and Hagman himself (who plays the young hobo). Sid Haig and Burgess Meredith appear unbilled.

Admittedly, a rather crudely made movie, but just the fact that it exists is pretty amusing. It does have some value as a curio.

Future cinematographer Dean Cundey was the camera operator for the animal sequences.

Five out of 10.

Having enjoyed revisiting THE BLOB (1958) during this challenge, I could not pass up the opportunity of acquiring its (not very well regarded and ultra-rare) sequel when it presented itself towards the end of October; best-known for being "The Film That J.R. Shot" (in view of Hagman's famous stint as the charismatic villain in the long-running TV series DALLAS), it is – quite frankly – one of the worst follow-ups to an established or cult classic I have watched (incidentally, there is an in-joke involving the original being shown playing on TV early on: both are Jack H. Harris productions)! The decision to treat its theme in comedic fashion was a disastrous one – though, admittedly, the opening moments prove endearing as they highlight the antics of a small (and very cute) cat that, needless to say, becomes the titular monster's first victim. Robert Walker (a dead-ringer for his late and more famous namesake father) makes for a decent lead under the circumstances and, among the gelatinous monster's victims are Carol Lynley, Dick Van Patten, Gerrit Graham, an unrecognizable Sid Haig, lesser Blaxploitation exponents Godfrey Cambridge and Marlene Clark (from GANJA & HESS [1973] and THE BEAST MUST DIE [1974]), as well as uncredited cameos by Burgess Meredith and Hagman himself playing drunken hobos! For what it is worth, the film is at its (relative) best during the blob's attack at an ice rink and the chaos that ensues.