The Stuff (1986)

Film opens up with some old geezer in Alaska, amazed by a white bubbling goo bubbling up from the ground. Doing what any sane, rational person would do, he sticks his finger in it and gives it a taste, thus discovering the new taste sensation of the decade. Pretty soon, "The Stuff" is flying off grocery shelves and into the tummies of every American consumer who just can't get enough of the white goop. A cocky industrial saboteur is sent in by the jealous ice cream industry to discover what is the secret ingredient in this new product, and he soon teams up with a young boy and the advertising creator for "The Stuff", finding out that it's not really, surprise surprise, all that good for you. As you may have guessed, the white goo is some sort of being, like "The Blob" or something that has an intelligence all of it's own. Consume it and you'll soon be turned into a mindless zombie, forever hooked on the gooey glop. Director Larry Cohen is known for his quirky horror films, and this one is no different. Cohen delivers a take on American society and consumers in general that hits about 50 percent of the time. Just about everything in this film, from the acting to the effects is wildly uneven. The scenes of white goo oozing from zombified stuffies are pretty cool, particularly the scene of the one dude practically drowning in it, as is "Chocolate Chip Charlie's" death scene in which his mouth opens reeeaal wide. The rest of the effects just sorta fall flat, the superimposition stuff coming to mind. The acting was so-so, nothing to special. Maybe if I was in the right frame of mind I would have enjoyed this one more, who knows. As it stands, I guess "The Stuff" was not really all that bad, it's just that nothing really seemed to stand out to me.