When I first started dating Becca, I was at her apartment and we were looking for something to watch. This is what she picked, making me aware of my luck. It’s one thing for me to find a hot girl. It’s another when that lady loves great movies.

We were excited to catch this in the theater recently and this is one remake that does not disappoint. It was great to hear people loudly gasp during the gore in this. It was made in 1988, when life must have been much cheaper than today, because hardly anyone makes it out alive.

Just like the original, The Blob starts with a meteor crash being investigated by an old man and his dog. But unlike that 1950’s science fiction film, this movie exists to confound expectations. It spends so much time setting up Paul (Donovan Leitch) and Meg (Shawnee Smith, Saw II) as the leads that when Paul is eaten by the Blob early in the film, it really comes across as a surprise. The real hero is Brian (Kevin Dillon), who is constantly in trouble with the cops and always rides a Triumph motorcycle, a nod to the star of the original, Steve McQueen.

For the rest of the film’s running time, Meg and Brian have to convince the town that the Blob is real. By the end, they’re trying to expose the fact that whatever the Blob is, it’s not from space. No, it’s a U.S. government-made weapon.

The Blob is packed with familiar faces, like Jack “Eraserhead” Nance as a doctor, Candy Clark as a doomed waitress, Second City braintrust Del Close as a priest who starts to worship The Blob, Paul McCrane as a cop (he’ll always be Emil Antonowsky in RoboCop to me) and Bill Moseley as a memorable soldier who mutters a strange soliloquy about The Blob before dying.

The credit for this movie being a sequel that actually works belongs to the team of Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont, who started working together on the film Hell Night and co-wrote A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. There’s enough to remind you of the original while aspiring to be a movie on its own merits. It may have been a box office failure, but time has been quite kind to this movie.

Here’s a drink for this movie.

Sewer Jelly (from the book Let’s Get Monster Smashed by Jon and Marc Chiat)

• 8 oz. vodka
• 8 oz. water
• 1 1/2 oz. cherry Jell-O
• 1 1/2 oz. grape Jell-O
• 8 oz. cherry yogurt (they recommend vanilla, but I’m going bloody)
• About 20 or so small pineapple chunks

1. Combine gelatin and 8 oz. water in a pot over low heat ad cook until the gelatin is dissolved.
2. With the heat off, add the vodka and mix thoroughly.
3. Combine pineapple chunks with the gelatin and mix.
4. Pour into a bundt cake pan and add the yogurt. Mix thoroughly.
5. Chill overnight or until set.