Cult classics don’t get much more cult classic than The Stuff, written and directed by the late great Larry Cohen. If George Romero thought he was calling attention to consumerism in Dawn of the Dead, he was massively outplayed by Cohen in this flick. Personally, I don’t much like movies that try to deliver a message, because often times the filmmakers lose sight of the story in favor of the message.
That’s not the case here, however. It’s fun as hell, whether there is a message being delivered or not.
From IMDB: “A delicious, mysterious goo that oozes from the earth is marketed as the newest dessert sensation, but the tasty treat rots more than teeth when zombie-like snackers who only want to consume more of the strange substance at any cost begin infesting the world.”
Basically, the Stuff is a new dessert that is mined from the earth, rather than manufactured, and when people eat it, they become obsessed with it, wanting to eat more and more, and wanting to spread the word about the Stuff, so more people will eat it. Naturally, a highly addictive yogurt-like treat that has no manufacturing costs is a gold mine for Big Business. The scary thing about The Stuff is that you could totally see things playing out like that in real life, with a collection of rich jerks promoting and selling a product regardless of the harm it does to consumers. Because, you know, literally every product sold at that gas station down the road is slowly killing you.
The editing is bizarre and scenes don’t seem to flow together right at all, but this doesn’t seem to damage the movie’s entertainment quality in the least. The gore and splattery special effects of the Stuff are what make the movie. In particular, the scene where the Stuff explodes from a mattress, consuming a man in a motel room, is expertly done. And the scene where Charlie’s (Garrett Morris of SNL fame) head mutates and explodes is epic. Not to mention, the acting by Michael Moriarty as Mo, the lead protagonist, is unrivaled by the acting in most similar genre movies.
But maybe my favorite parts of The Stuff are the three of four scenes that are cheesy commercials for the Stuff. They’re so authentic–like real commercials from the 80s–that it’s ridiculous. I absolutely love them!
You’ve got to watch it! Check it out on Amazon.