---
title: "The Blob (1988) review"
description: "I love this movie. I've seen it so many times, and it needs to be as celebrated as The Thing in my humble opinion."
url: https://www.joekarlsson.com/reviews/the-blob-1988/
---

![A still from The Blob (1988)](https://www.joekarlsson.com/images/reviews/the-blob-1988/backdrop.webp)

# The Blob (1988)

Oct 25, 2025 | 2 min read | Rated 4 out of 5 | Dir. Chuck Russell

I love this movie. I’ve seen it so many times, and it needs to be as celebrated as The Thing in my humble opinion.

The Blob looks incredible. Every shot is meticulously crafted and you can feel the level of work required to pull this off. The fact that it’s all analog effects makes it even more impressive - it has a tangible, physical quality that CGI just can’t replicate. To this day, I don’t know how they pulled off a majority of the shots with the blob itself. It looks disgusting and so cool and alive, moving in ways that feel genuinely alien and threatening.

The practical effects work is some of the best horror makeup and creature design of the 80s. The blob feels like a real presence, not just a special effect. When it’s consuming people or oozing through pipes, you believe it completely.

But I also love the core characters here. Kevin Dillon is incredible as the rebellious outsider protagonist. It’s such a good idea to center the movie on a guy who just hates authority and spends the entire runtime fucking things up for everybody - in the best way possible. He has so much agency throughout the film and it’s so fun to watch him bulldoze through every obstacle. He’s not waiting for adults or the government to save the day - he’s taking action, even when everyone tells him he’s wrong.

This movie rules. More people need to put respect on The Blob’s name.

Also on [Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/joekarlsson/film/the-blob-1988/)

## Works on My Machine

Get the next post by email. My newsletter covers homelab builds, AI tools and open source, and it goes out when I have something to say.

It's free, and you can unsubscribe anytime. You'll get an email to confirm first.

![Joe Karlsson at his desk, chin on hand, with a microphone in front of him](https://www.joekarlsson.com/images/about/collage/studio.webp)

Joe  
Karlsson

I write about my homelab, AI tools, databases, and the weird stuff I build on the side.

[More about me →](https://www.joekarlsson.com/about/)

[Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/joekarlsson.com) | [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joekarlsson/) | [GitHub](https://github.com/JoeKarlsson)