Verdict:
The movie periodically cuts to a local movie theatre, where a typical slasher film is being played. After certain events of the Blob unfold, one of the characters in the audience exclaims that he will never go see another one of those scary movies. Given this jokey meta commentary and certain other events, it’s a safe assumption that the creators did not take this movie too seriously.
The practical gore effects are good, but at the same time, increasingly comical, to the point where some scenes resemble slapstick comedy. My partner and I were laughing out loud at every death, and at the way the titular Blob stalked and chased its victims. The creators could not have been unaware of how their effects looked. Even the name of the movie is funny.
The fact that the rest of this movie is acted completely straight, makes it only funnier.
On the technical side, the film holds up well. It does a good job of setting up elements early in the story that pay off later, and the acting is decent. While the dialogue isn’t particularly believable, it’s serviceable for a horror movie. Characters are properly established, and the central characters have a noticeable arc.
Sadly, the movie doesn’t go far enough into one or the other direction. It is not funny enough to work as a black comedy and too funny to be genuinely scary, which plants it closer to the so-bad-that-it’s-good territory, but the film is not bad enough for that either.
In short, The Blob is pretty awesome, but it is hard to tell if the people behind the camera realize why. In any case, it’s worth watching. The Blob is a good example of horror slapstick.