Summer's End

Alas, another summer unwinds, lost to the hostile, windswept ravages of time.  The end of summer is often accompanied by bittersweet reflection, but this one was especially hot and our troubled world seemed particularly beset with, well, trouble.  

And yet it isn't quite over, and in these dying hours I'll celebrate the summer of 2016 with my idea of the perfect summer movie, THE BLOB (1958).  A few of you might be scratching your heads, so I'll try to explain.

As well as being the quintessential drive-in movie, there are numerous reasons THE BLOB gently tugs those heart strings as if an ode to the warmest season.

Teenagers in love, falling stars, Eisenhower-era hot rods, parents who cannot possibly understand, a young Steve McQueen as our steady, reliable high school hero (well, young-ish--he was 27 at the time)...In THE BLOB, these elements come together in a manner seemingly perfectly fused to capture a bit of old magic from summers yore.

             
And of course, there's the small matter of that titular, mysterious mass itself.  You see, the Blob, though it may look like a hunk of Smuckers' strawberry preserves and seem a bit gimmicky and cheap in retrospect, has but one mission: consume everyone in it's path.  And with each new victim, it grows ever larger.

Summer has always been the season of youth, of boundless romantic possibility--and in THE BLOB the adults cannot seem to do much right, and so it is the teenagers who must save their town from the unspeakable scourge of death and horror that is this growing, glowing mass from beyond space.

Well, it gets bigger.

Too close-minded and cynical to believe its existence, the grown-ups become the quarry. 

When in doubt, reach for the closest jar of acid.


But when the Blob invades the local theater's midnight spook show--ground zero for late-night teenage revelry--you know it's only a matter of time...

While there might only remain a few warm nights this year, THE BLOB perseveres some 58 years later.  Or at least it does in this neck of the woods.


Did I mention the catchy theme song(!)?