"The Blob" is very entertaining spoof of alien invasion paranoia and teenage delinquency - imagine a mix of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "The Crawling Eye" with elements of "Rebel without a Cause". Add a 28 year old Steve McQueen ('and exciting young actors', as the trailer says) playing a teenager and you've got this film that I love! I've always found it great to watch, particularly as part of a late night 50's sci-fi film session. The opening theme song by Burt Bacharach retains a quirky charm all of it's own. So, what happens? A meteorite crashes outside a small American town: the meteorite reveals an alien creature that goes around absorbing human victims. Teenagers investigate and warn the town. Steve McQueen saves the day with a fire extinguisher. Have a look here for some more details.
In one of the most memorable scenes from the film, the 'blob' attacks a cinema. Cue shrieking 'thirty'-boppers!
"Demon Seed "is a much darker film, about a super computer
named 'Proteous IV'that becomes so powerful, that it develops it's own emotions and thought processes. It wishes to fully understand humans and does so by creating one. It achieves this by impregnating the estranged wife of the scientist who invented it. Julie Christie (pictured) plays Susan, who becomes the mother of the hybrid baby. Susan is entrapped in her home by the computer, and forced to do its bidding. Proteous IV even murders a scientist who tries to aid her escape. Eventually, the authorities decide to shut the crazed machine down, but Proteous IV finds a way to survive.....
The film takes a very bleak look at the then 'new' science of computers, typical of the era it was released in. Computers in 1970's cinema still belonged alongside evil robots and mad scientists! Overall, I quite like the film, although it does fall into over-long psychedelic weirdness in a couple of places. I guess the director was trying to achieve some sort of visual 'high art' with lasers and early examples of computer graphics.....or copy the end sequence of "2001: A Space Odyssey". Demon Seed features a cold but engaging performance from Julie Christie, who is fine as the grieving mother (the character had lost a daughter to leukaemia, and was going through marital problems) entrapped by the computer.
Right, I'm off to watch another old sci-fi film now, called "Silent Running".
