Dir. Larry Cohen (1985)
A new dessert product may not be as good for you as it seems.
There are a lot of similarities between this movie and the one we reviewed yesterday, The Blob, though director Larry Cohen's 1985 film is much more socially conscious in nature. A scathing condemnation of Reagan-era consumerism/corporatism gets quite muddled in its message, but it's still a super fun "creature feature" of sorts that is an absolute blast to watch. Cohen was a grindhouse director from the 42nd Street New York era, and it's easy to see a lot of those traces in this film despite that era being largely over by the time it was released. It also takes place far away from the scene, though it definitely plays with a lot of the same ideas as Cohen's earlier films discuss.
Two miners discover a strange, bubbling goo that rises from the ground, and after tasting it (as one does), they discover it's a wonderful food and immediately begin marketing it to consumers. The Stuff takes the country by storm, and the addictive dessert becomes the hottest product in America. Corporate spy David "Mo" Rutherford (Michael Moriarty) is hired to find out The Stuff's ingredients, not knowing that he will be thrown into a situation with one of the most dangerous substances on Earth. As The Stuff begins taking over the world, it's up to Mo, an advertising executive (Andrea Marcovicci), a young boy (Scott Bloom), and a tyrannical military dictator (Paul Sorvino. Also, wtf?) to stop it.
The themes of corporatism are clear from the very outset as Cohen's film digs into the beginnings of The Stuff and the way it was rushed through FDA approval. Payoffs, mysterious deaths, and the like are very real-world events that are easy to skewer in the way that he handles the science-fiction origins of the product, as is his bizarro world example of consumerism during an age where it was the primary driving force in the country. It's difficult to imagine for someone not alive during the era, but this is literally how the world was when this film came out. The country was doing great financially because we hadn't had to experience any of the downsides of Reaganomics yet, but the eventual fall just happened a lot slower than it did in the film.
The major difficult with The Stuff and its messaging is the inclusion of Paul Sorvino as the fascist military leader in the film. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Paul Sorvino, and his portrayal of Mafia boss Paul Cicero in Goodfellas is one of my favorite roles of all time. He's great in this film too, but it's a role that feels wildly out of place in a film that seeks to criticize the type of right-wing propaganda of the era that led to actual products like this. It would have been just as easy to create a kind of "Wolverines!" group of freedom fighters than it was to establish a fascist dictatorship, and it feels a little bit like its two groups from the same side fighting against the other.
Regardless of its political confliction, The Stuff is still a fantastically fun creature feature from smackdab in the middle of the 80's. It doesn't have the incredible effects of The Blob, and it leans much more heavily into cheesy, low-rent horror territory, but it's a super entertaining film with some great performances. Moriarty is charming and hilarious as the fly-by-night corporate espionage specialist, and even Bloom does a great job as a child actor fighting against the product after his family is destroyed. The gooey, all-encompassing Stuff is handled very well, an ocean of melted marshmallow that can come out of everywhere all at once. The effects are decent too, especially for the time, but they don't rise to the level of some of its contemporaries that took a more serious angle on the same idea.
The Stuff became a cult classic anyway, however, because Larry Cohen is great at making films like this. While its criticism of real-world events is rarely much more than surface level, the film did it in an era where almost no one else was paying attention to these things. There had already been other films taking aim at the same topic, most notably Network or even Dawn of the Dead, but this one happened right in the middle of the Reaganomics that boosted it to previously unheard of levels. For that alone, it's to be commended, especially since its a fun watch regardless of your political leanings. It's also a hell of a double feature with The Blob, and if you get the chance, watch them both.
Who this movie is for: Political horror fans, Science fiction horror lovers, Dieticians
Bottom line: The Stuff is a fun, over-the-top science fiction horror with some great scenes of monster mayhem and some heavy-handed political commentary. While it doesn't contain the stellar effects of some of the other films of its era, it's a refreshing idea by one of the best grindhouse directors of all time. If you're a fan of 80's horror, it's an absolute must-see, and it still holds up fairly well today despite its cheesy nature. Arrow Video has a great copy of it on blu-ray, and I'd definitely recommend grabbing a copy.
