For my media essay, I have decided to compare two films, that both go by the same name of ‘The Blob’ I decided to compare these two films as one is an original, ‘The Blob’ produced in 1958 (an independently made 1958 American horror/science-fiction film that depicts a giant amoeba-like alien that terrorizes the small community of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania) The other produced in1988 (The Blob is a 1988 American monster horror film distributed by Tristar Pictures. It is a remake of the 1958 film of the same name, which starred Steve McQueen. The film was written by Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont and directed by Russell. The shooting took place in Abbeville, Louisiana) These films, although have the same main feature are different in many aspects, this is why I decided to make a comparison of the two, that and the fact horror seemed very relevant with Halloween fast approaching. I have analysed the opening 5 minutes of each of the films.
The first obvious difference between the films is that they are both set in different places of America, and directed by different film producers. The obvious similarity is that they both have a similar plot, with the first 5 minutes in each film showing a meteorite crashing into the ground, which is then discovered to be The Blob.
In the opening scene of the 1958 film ‘The Blob’ where the titles are played we are greeted with a rather cheery up beat jazz song, which is soon joined by some repetitive lyrics, ‘beware of the blob, it creeps and leaps and glides and slides across the floor and groove the door and all around the wall, a splotch a blotch be careful of the blob’ these meant to be scary lyrics, informing and establishing what the film is about sung to a very upbeat tune are very hard to relate to a horror, and with rhyming lyrics, which most people associate with happiness, making it easy in the opening scene to forget it’s a horror. This is played over a plain black background, with red off circular shapes, which start off small, gradually getting bigger; this gives a slight illusion of hypnotism, The contrast of the happiness with the illusion are somewhat confusing, leading you into believing something dramatic will follow. This is finished off by the title ‘The Blob’ entering the screen fading in and out like a faulty light bulb, an aspect typically associated with scary situations.
In the opening scene of the 1998 film ‘The Blob’ The titles are played on a black background, which slowly shows a moving picture of the earth from space, which continues to zoom in to a particular part of a country in to a very specific street, the titles consist of dark writing, only slightly lit by an electric blue border. Blue is a very powerful colour to use and has a perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy, This setting you up for something dramatic and powerful to follow. The music playing over the top in comparison to the 1958 film could not be further apart. Whereas in the original, it was an upbeat tune with lyrics, this is a very eerie sound of long, held on high pitch notes starting off quietly gradually getting louder.
In the beginning of the 1958 film, it shows a young couple, kissing, sitting in a car romantically watching the stars on a very remote hill top in the countryside on a dark summer’s night. The couple have a slight tiff or disagreement, which is an attempt to build up suspension. There is silence in between conversations where you can hear crickets in the background. pausing immediately before giving important information will increase your audience's attention. The conversation is based upon shooting stars, and in the silence the noise of a firework starts to appear, then showing what appears at first to be a comet or meteorite falling through the sky behind the dark silhouettes of trees, finally hitting the ground in the distance, resulting in smoke rapidly climbing back up into the sky. The young man and woman, remove themselves from the position of perching on the edge of car, to sitting in the seats and speeding off to see if they can find what the mysterious item was that had fallen from the sky. The following scene is of a remote house or cabin amongst many trees, with only the noise of a dog barking. The door slowly opens, where an elderly man appears, and shows a 360 view around him, from his perspective, from when the eerie music begins to play again, this time with the added extra of a stodgy bubbling sound. The man then returns into the house, which is quiet relieving being the audience because you think he’s put himself out of danger, which you desperately want because old people are associated with vulnerability. He then re appears with a lantern, and before leaving his cabin pushes his dog back in and begins to walk through the trees, following a graduated and fading glow again like a faulty light bulb accompanied by a bubbling noise. The music gets more dramatic as the elderly man gets closer to the ‘blob’ which to the eye does look like something you would expect to fall from outer space. The man then gets a stick and gently prods it, when it the mysterious item begins to crack or hatch, and its dark black shell slowly falls. The old man then repeats the prod, this time to a goo like substance, where he then picks it up on the end of a stick. As he brings the stick closer to him the goo begins to trickle down, closer to his hand, he turns the stick the other way, to prevent it from touching him, when then, the blob transfers itself onto his hand, where he is unable to remove it.
In the 1998 film, again all aspects are different, the first clear one being that it’s in a very much built up area, where as the other was in the countryside. The second difference is the seasons that it’s set in, the original is set on a summers night, in contrast this is set in the fast approaching winter season, where although this is not clear in the picture, it shows shop windows, showing signs such as ‘pre ski sale, 40 % - 50% off’ and ‘THINK SNOW. Avalanche Shooters’ whilst the eerie music is still playing this is building up suspension with the following scene showing again a deserted street, which shows an up close shot of a black cat crossing the road from right to left on a rather dark windy evening, which is believed to be a ‘bad luck’ thing in Western history, black cats have often been looked upon as a symbol of evil omens and in western and southern Europe considers the black cat as a symbol of bad luck, especially if one crosses paths with a person, which is believed to be an omen of misfortune and death. In Germany, some believe that black cats crossing a person's path from right to left, is a bad omen. In this film we are not yet introduced to any characters, whereas in the original, at this point we had already been introduced to three, this for me is a better way of making the audience more edgy as it makes you wait as it’s building up to something, as making the audience wait for something to happen makes it have a greater impact when it does so. The next clip shown is off a very big house or building, with a steeple as if it was once a church, this immediately making people think of graves and death, it then zooms or shows a closer clip of the house, following the same pattern it did as the film was starting (zooming in from space to a particular country) now looking on to part of the building behind this tall black bars, giving off a feeling of being trapped. This, followed on by clips of the church tower and the statues and gremlins that sit amongst the buildings, from her it begins to zoom out, giving an almost Birdseye view, then zooming back in again, on to a stadium with a full crowd cheering for an American football team. After scoring one player comes off, which is followed by two young boys discussing, when he will ask one of the cheer leaders out. Here, like the 1958 film it shows some resemblance to the young couple – young love theme. This is then followed on by that young American football boy, in a remote area, very much like in the original. He is with a motor bike, looking in to the distance standing on part of what is a broken bridge above a small crater or forge in the ground. He throws his coke can across the bridge before he speeds off to return in an attempt to jump the broken bridge. We then see a figure appear from the bushes and shrubbery. As the young boy is speeding back, he loses control and falls, making failure to complete the jump, when there, the figure is revealed, an elderly man and his dog. Although the scenes are very different in the two films, the characters so far are the same, even if they don’t have the same relationships with in this film. It goes back to the setting of the town in the following sequence where two more characters are introduced again, a man who is a sheriff and woman who works behind the bar, deciding on a date or a meet up. It is set in an old café/ restaurant. At this moment in time in the film, this film seems pointless, but the characters must have importance later on in the film. It is followed by bringing us back to the elderly man, who appeared to be squashing cans and throwing them into a metal bin at night, he was standing around a fire, and outside what we assume is his house/cabin in a remote area, much like the original. His trusty dog is also lying outside with him. The high pitched long notes begin to play again at this point, building up tension, the shot slowly moved up vertically showing the pitch black sky, appearing was an orange circular figure, at this point the dog began to wine or cry This adds to the tension because as we know dogs have a sixth sense and can predict bad things, he pulled away from his tethered lead, and ran. The elderly man then looks up to the sky, to see the figure fast approaching, flying over him by just a few centimetres and crashing in some trees just a few metres away. Unlike the original, the item that landed is much more exaggerated. He slowly walks over to the trees, carrying an axe, which already makes you think of something more dramatic and bigger, because in the original, he was simply carrying a stick and there, lying in the ground an item which is easily ten times bigger than the original, a brain like item, making a bubbling noise.
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