Rewind & Review: The Stuff (1985)

The 80’s are nearly unanimously considered to be the golden age of horror movies, and rightfully so. John Carpenter, Ridley Scott, George Romero, and Wes Craven were all on their A-game. Sam Raimi and a number of other fresh-faced independent creators were bursting onto the scene with the latest surge to consumer-marketed film tech. Stephen King adaptations were coming out at an unstoppable rate. Even critically-acclaimed directors like Kubrick and Spielberg were providing offerings to the genre. And then there’s Tim Burton who, well, just kept being Tim Burton. I could go on, but I think my point has largely been made and that’s not really what this piece is about. This is about a film that went against the grain of many of the slasher, paranormal, and monster movies that permeated the landscape of the area. A film that was intellectually elevated enough to stand toe-to-toe with “The Shining” but still whimsical enough to stand next to the plethora of other “The” titles of the time (The Blob, The Fly, The Thing, The Hidden). The Stuff. 

 

Many people will say that horror and comedy are two sides of the same coin. I’ve loosely touched on this in previous postings when talking about the work of Stuart Gordon (did I mention him anywhere in the 80’s golden age litany? Feel free to assume his name goes into each of those categories mentioned). Anyways, yes, horror and comedy. Two sides. Same coin. Two-Face’s wet dream. Though, very few films can actually pull off both at the same time without cascading into the dreaded “horror-comedy” zone. Now, horror-comedy is something that I am quite passionate about and I think that we’re seeing a resurgence of the genre parallel to that of the late 90’s/early 00’s. That being said, “The Stuff” is a film that is so uniquely attached to its time that very few current horror-comedies can compete with it. 

“The Stuff” revolves around a foamy, creamy, semi-solid substance from which the title is derived. After it’s discovery, it quickly becomes mass marketed as the next hit thing in the frozen dessert world. It’s low calorie, it’s cheap, and it tastes great! It’s even got a catchy jingle and an eye-popping color scheme to make it that much more irresistible. Suddenly, The Stuff puts the entire ice cream industry at risk. Chicks in bikinis are eating it on beaches. Pink neon signs light up on city storefronts. Kids are even eating it for dinner. All but one, a young kid named Jason who swears that The Stuff is actually alive. Soon, the entire ice cream industry hires a former FBI agent to commit corporate espionage and investigate The Stuff. I don’t think you could ask for a stronger premise to deliver a horror-comedy: set against the consumerist-centric backdrop of the 80’s, a young boy discovers that the ice cream in his freezer is turning his family into monsters while an FBI agent gets contracted by the entirety of the now at-risk ice cream industry to unearth the dark secrets behind this low-cal calamity. Que catchy jingle. Que neon signs. Que chicks in bikinis. 

 

Despite such a whacky premise, the film executes a very strong story. There’s some cheesy scenes here and there, and the occasional convenient plot device, but any true fan of horror would be offended if those weren’t in there. The soundtrack is pretty good, but unfortunately does get dwarfed a little bit by the volume of incredible horror soundtracks of the time. Visually, it’s great and does a terrific job of landscaping the time and evoking the feeling of 80’s marketing that was so indicative of the decade. If I were to provide any major changes, I would have personally liked to see a change in the main character. 

The former FBI Agent, Mo Rutherford, is a classic leading-man and that’s largely what he does in the movie. The movie centers around the environment and how The Stuff changes American society, and Mo is our everyman. We see this world through his lens. He doesn’t provide a whole lot of commentary, and though he’s insightful, he’s not the most aware character. That title belongs to the youngest character in the movie – Jason. Jason isn’t insightful because he’s some savant kid or was exposed to a deep truth at the beginning of his life. He’s insightful because he’s a kid. He doesn’t care how expensive this new ice cream alternative is, and he certainly doesn’t care if it’s low in calories. Jason represents a tabula rasa, or blank slate (please forgive me for making a John Locke reference here) in the world of over-marketing and fantasy fulfillment. Jason wants everything that any kid wants in life, which happens to include not having his family’s brain become depleted by parasitic frozen dairy desserts, and maybe ride his bike down the cul de sac every now and again.  . Even when the adults in his life force-feed him The Stuff, Jason uses his wit to avoid it. It makes sense for a kid to be the main character here because when you’re a kid, everything seems much bigger than it ever actually is. When your mom keeps buying the wrong ice cream, it does feel like the end of the world; only in Jason’s case, it actually was. 

 

The director and writer, Larry Cohen, was acutely aware of the effect that consumerism had on society. He could see the direction that America was going with capitalism, and that’s what inspired his critique. Stranger Things took a page out of his book in the season 3 by looking at the corporate greed of the 80’s, and a number of other stories have done the same thing. Cohen, however, saw it in real-time without the luxury of hindsight. He knew that people were becoming brainwashed by products, so what could be more fitting than a literal brain freeze. He knew that middle America was susceptible to hit fads and that shared sense of community, so that’s what he showed. He knew that the government was all too-well aware of how corporations were able to flex their power for capital gain, which is why he put an FBI agent in the center of the story. And, he knew that many of the kids of his era would be disillusioned by the false promises not just made by The Stuff, but by all sorts of different products and would develop a more critical eye towards the industries they support and the ones they actively tear down. Much like the real world around us, it’s a near-even split of horror and comedy, with just enough shrouded hope to provide a call-to-action for anyone eagle-eyed enough to spot it; but maybe that’s just the kid-on-a-bike in me.