Beware! The Blob
Unlike most monsters of the period, the Blob has no humanoid element. It has a will—to consume flesh—and it moves in search of victims; that is what passes for the Blob’s character, and the simplicity of the concept makes the Blob an especially formidable and memorable Thing. It came from the stars. It dissolves flesh on contact. As it absorbs people, it gets bigger and turns red with their blood. It can flow under or around any obstacle. It can’t be killed. It is a monster of appetite: an absolute consumer, voracious, growing. And it hates cold.But despite the Blob’s singular nature, there is as at least one cinematic rule it does obey: that of the First Victim. The First Victim is a standard figure in many genres, including the thriller, science fiction, and horror. If there is a deadly threat, this person is the first to know—too much—about it. A bit like Eva and Pandora, the First Victim ventures, intentionally or not, into dangerous territory and is punished forever. He or she knows—and often is used as a vehicle to show—that a killer is loose or the ancient curse still works or the funny-looking plant eats people. In The Blob, elderly First Victim Olin Howlin finds a meteorite and prods it with a stick. It cracks open, revealing a sphere of goop. He gets the glob on his stick and watches it drip like mucous in the starlight. When the stuff gets too close, he turns the stick over, but instead of dripping back down it lunges up and surrounds his hand. That’s when he and we discover that the Blob is alive and hostile. Howlin is so effective at conveying the pain in his hand that we are allowed to imagine the pain of being engulfed entirely. His death prefigures all the others, and it is his curiosity about nature—trusting to gravity, and with it the known world—that reveals the unnatural thing from a world unknown.
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