When we think of monsters, Blob isn’t the one at the top of the list. However, it is an important one in cinema history and who doesn’t like Blobby!

Next Superman?

The Blob monster is not one we necessarily think about when the word monster is spoken. We think about the four original classics: vampires, werewolves, frankenstein and the mummy. However, the monster a blob is could be very dangerous and of nightmarish intentions.

It is very hard to say if the Blob monster had an origin else than the 1958 horror movie with a science fiction twist.

The blob consist of a gooey gelatine type of organic organism that could either be of alien origin or military experiment gone bad. Capable of engulfing living tissue and digesting them, it is a very horrifying though. And that is not all, each “bite” makes it stronger and bigger.

As I made my research, I’ve come across many interpretation of the monster. Almost resembling like a phlegm type of creature, the origin is still a mystery because of the use of the monster in many movies, video games and phone/tablet applications.

A Blob monster is obviously of amorphous shape, because of a non-existent skeleton, no tendons and muscles. It also has no physical organs that humans are common with and does not bleed either.

It has many attributes that could be seen as almost indestructible and invulnerable. The Blob, because it is invertebrates, it has the ability of squeezing itself, almost like a reptilian or rodent into any types of cracks or holes.

It is almost reminiscent of the jellyfish’s head, capable of moving and absorbing and almost translucent in appearance. It can almost be seen as a amoebas (a single-celled animal that catches food and moves about by extending fingerlike projections of protoplasm. Amoebas are either free-living in damp environments or parasitic.)

Like Superman, it barely has any vulnerability, which makes it a very efficient monster, yet under used. It is generally stopped by being frozen or burned. However, the bigger it gets, the more of those two “forces” you need.

Unlike Superman, who can be taken down by a kryptonite bullet, the Blob has to be physically, entirely submerged in either ice or fire.

Mindless Blob

Is the Blob mindless? That depends on the representation of the monster itself. What is common to all the embodiment of the creature, are the capabilities of shaping itself to almost anything it sees.

However, if you can reproduce what you can see, doesn’t that mean you have some sort of intelligence to begin with? If not instinctive, representation of something means mimicking and to do so, you need to have the capacity to learn.

Blob monsters are often sees as such, yet, in both horror movies (1958 and 1988) the “monster” in question was either an alien from another planet therefore humans were unaware of its needs or behavior while in the remake of the movie, it was a military experiment gone bad, resulting in a creature that was most likely unaware of its actions being harmful probably fighting to live.

“Not that I don’t totally believe in your Mavis, because I do. But this sounds like the kind of thing that blows right up in your face.”

Hotel Transylvania — The Series, Wendy Blob

I’m not saying the Blob monster is a hero, but I’m not saying it’s an assured villain either. Without the means of communication, it is hard to justify its actions and if it has a mind or if its sentient.

Either way, the Blob monsters are often under used probably due to its slimy appearance, which I find deplorable since it has so much potential being almost invulnerable.

Blob-ularity

We have first encountered the monster on September 12th of the year 1958 in the American movie The Blob, directed by Irvin Yeaworth featuring Steve McQueen and Aneta Corsaut.

The Blob – 1958

The movie is quite simple in its horror way. A young couple are kissing in the young man’s car and witnesses a meteorite crashing. Curious, they go to investigate but see an older man being attacked by the slime. They bring it to a doctor who asks them to go back to the site, but in the meantime the blob consumes the people within the small clinic and the problem grows and grows, until it is settled that the creature must be dropped in the arctic to be frozen indefinitely.

The Blob – 1988

Despite the movie resembling its predecessor and original story, the movie takes place in Arborville, California instead of Pennsylvania. Some details changed, but the plot remains the same as the Blob monster grows as it consumes organic flesh by contact.

Focusing on the high school students instead of a clinic, it shows the director might have been targeting a younger audience for the movie, yet failed to achieve it when it came out and was a box office disappointment yet appraised for its special effect.

The Blob – 2018?

The movie is still in development therefore the details about its story is very minimal. However, it is said that instead of being a meteorite crashing or a military experiment failure, coal miners will be the ones releasing the Blob monster.

However, so little is known, that maybe that information is outdated or false.

Blob Everywhere

In the animated movie Alien vs Monsters that came out in 2009, featuring the voices of big Hollywood stars such as Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogen and Rainn Wilson, a Blob monster is shown as part of the main crew of the movie.

However, the most popular representation now, must be from the Sony Pictures Animation studio, Hotel Transylvania. Blobby, the monster is shown to be a very friendly and kind monster, joyful and curious, unable to speak, but very expressive nonetheless. It is hard not to like Blobby as helpful as it can be.

Not much shown in the first movie, it has been given a bigger role in the sequel and will be given even more screen time in the third as we see it reproduce itself, which is the reason why I use “it” instead of a definitive sex as it seems to either be capable of asexual reproduction or it was a “she” all along, which I doubt.

Monster Blob

In Hotel Transylvania – The Series, playing on Disney Channel (I know, it’s weird to me too), the characters of Mr. Blob and his daughter Wendy are introduced as part of the Hotel’s most important visitors and Wendy as Mavis‘ best ghoulfriend (see what I did there).

Hotel Transylvania – The Series is inspired by the popular movie franchise, but not to be taken as a prequel to the movies. Some details have been modified to fit the cartoon and of course, some characters were replaced by others not to disturb the movie franchise as it keeps on coming with new ones.

However, the definition of the Blob monster remains the same as steam seems to be their biggest rivalry as shown in the Wendy Big And Tall episode when her father, Mr. Blob is locked by accident in the sauna while Wendy gets bigger by engulfing more of the “blob” organism.

The one thing that changes, is that Wendy does speak English, but it is said that Blobish is the language of the Blob monsters.

In the episode Really Gross Anatomy, Dr. Gillman confesses that he became a doctor by accident and is afraid to pass the 500 years’ test to keep his license to practice, while Mavis reminds him that he has given birth to Wendy in a lab.

Then, in the episode The Trouble With Wendies, Wendy gets a gum stuck to her ponytail and when brought to Dr. Gillman, his first attempt is to cut the hair and Wendy stops him saying that she had her hair from the time she was a blobette. She is shown in a petri dish with her eyes, and a bit of pink hair.

In conclusion, Hotel Transylvania seems to have opted for the laboratory experiment when it comes to the Blob monster. But it made a very cuddly and friendly one either from the movie or the 2D cartoon adaptation series.

Fun fact about the cartoon series, it is made in Canada and have won an award for best animated series in 2018.

Glitter Blob Party!

Blob monsters are obviously gaining in popularity throughout all the entertainment at our disposition. It might have first seen the light of day in 1958, but it has surely developed ever since.

We have learned throughout the years that the Blob monster can either be very dangerous and Superman-like when it comes to try taking it down, or very useful when friends with one.

Either way, I hope the Blob monster will be now used more often to bring more variety into the world of the paranormal and horror entertainment.

The physically pleasing monsters have to step down and leave some space for the shapeless, anatomically lacking skeleton Blob monster to have a wider range of what can be an amazing spooky experience.

Oh! And if you can’t get enough of the Blob monster, there is an American festival dedicated to the monster in question called, Blobfest!

The OCD Vampire
Alexa Wayne