When some white, slimy "stuff" is found, and released to the public as a product, it's a smash hit. People buy "The Stuff", eat it, love it. It's big and easy money for the company, but it turns out there are considerable effects on the consumers...
Larry Cohen's "The Stuff" is to evil trade what "Death Race 2000" (1975) is to evil media. When watching the movie, we learn pretty soon that it's not to be taken too seriously, but it has a reasonably serious story and message - that's a very good starting point for an easily accessible, yet entertaining and interesting movie.
And indeed, "The Stuff" is really everything you'd expect from it, when you've seen the trailer, or make an educated guess from data such as director, genre, year, poster, etc. It doesn't disappoint at all, and even finds it's unique tone, esp. in the brilliant, and very blunt, references to TV advertising, and the product hysteria that is all too present in hardcore-consumerism. In terms of special effects, "The Blob" (1958/1988) immediately comes to mind, and "The Stuff" looks at least as menacing, if not better, in some scenes, as it moves and grows. There are some great visuals - nice compositions, good use of shadow and light, and sometimes ridiculous, sometimes astounding, always CGI-free, special fx. Overall, there's really a unique visual quality to "The Stuff", which alone makes the movie very enjoyable to watch.
It may have some weaknesses when it goes all too deep into comedy, and becomes near-slapstick. Maybe dumb. But there's still plenty of good ideas, cultural references, interesting characters, funny moments, tons of The Stuff, a little bit of splatter, etc. pp., and it has this somehow educational side to it, touching on an actual issue of our lives. Maybe most importantly, all of it is presented with a fast pace, and weird charm, throughout.
"The Stuff" is a very nice watch. Think about it, but don't think too much about it. It has character, message, horror, and fun. That's about it, and we love it. Great... stuff.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090094/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stuff
Trailer video:
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