Are you eating it? Or is it eating you?
Ah, that's the stuff. Or rather, that's The Stuff, a highly amusing sociopolitical black comedy/horror flick from the warped, wonderful mind of cult maestro Larry Cohen.
Originally released in 1985, the film's messages are as timely as ever, thanks to some forward-thinking writing that neatly anticipates some things you might not expect from what looks to be a low-rent horror flick on the surface.
The plot, much like the titular Stuff, is a melange of different sources of inspiration, all mixed into a flavorful concoction that goes down easy, but may leave an decidedly unexpected aftertaste.
Take a healthy dose of The Blob, add in some Cold War-era government conspiracy theorizing by way of the OG Red Scare horror flick Invasion of the Body Snatchers; stir in a healthy dose of consumerism turning the general public into mindless zombies, a la Romero's Dawn of the Dead; and sprinkle liberally with some corporate espionage shenanigans, in the spirit of Watergate and the like, and you've basically got The Stuff in a nutshell- or a quart, if you prefer.
The Stuff tells the tale of a worker who stumbles upon some goo on the ground, and does what hardly anyone would do: has himself a taste. Much to his shock, it's pretty tasty, and he quickly sets into action patenting and selling the concoction to the masses, calling it- what else?- The Stuff.
The Stuff catches on big-time, and before long, people all over the States are addicted to it. But there's a catch, of course: the stuff is actually alien in origin and has the nasty side-effect of taking over those who eat it and forcing them to do its bidding- namely to spread The Stuff worldwide so it can take over all of mankind.
However, it's not that aspect of The Stuff that gets the attention of others- it's the contents of it. Once The Stuff takes off in popularity, the competition is green with envy, and is determined to find out what's in it, so that they can rip it off and make money hand-over-fist like the people manufacturing The Stuff are seemingly doing.
To that end, a group of shady corporate types hire espionage expert and former FBI agent David "Mo" Rutherford (Michael Moriarty), who never met a paycheck he didn't like, to infiltrate the corporation behind The Stuff and find out their secrets.
Before long, he discovers that the founders of The Stuff are nowhere to be found, seemingly having vanished off the face of the earth. With the help of the creative head of advertising, Nicole (Andrea Marcovicci) and a kid, Jason (Scott Bloom), who knows that The Stuff isn't what it seems, the three head to Midland, Georgia, where its made to get to the bottom of things.
Also helping out along the way are "Chocolate Chip" Charlie (Garrett Morris), one of the heads of a rival cookie company (think "Famous Amos"), who was pissed to discover his relatives sold out to the Man, or, in this case, The Stuff manufacturers, and wants to get even for being shut out.
Finally, there's military man and profession conspiracy theorist/radio personality in the Alex Jones mold, Colonel Malcolm Spears (Paul Sorvino), who helps assemble an army to take down the company before they take down humanity in earnest.
Needless to say, this is all a bit ridiculous, but also surprisingly effective and believable, to a point. I mean, how many times have you seen a story about a rival company sending a spy to infiltrate the competition to get inside info on them since this movie?
And of course, there's been plenty of products that have captured the public's fancy for a time before the next one came along to steal their thunder and/or products that were pulled from the shelves after some ingredient of the other proved hazardous.
All of this keeps The Stuff remarkably relevant and even timely, to a point. Granted, some of the effects are a bit dated- any time Green Screen is adopted, it's all a bit laughable- but in terms of general plot-line, this could easily be made today and you would barely have to change anything.
As I mentioned, Colonel Spears is basically Alex Jones in military clothing, and though the film doesn't downplay his craziness, he's nonetheless one of the good guys, more or less. The others are basically a con man out for cash (Rutherford), who only rises to the occasion when he has to, and the woman responsible for the ad campaign that helped sell The Stuff to the masses in the first place.
The only truly relatable characters are the kid alienated from his family for not wanting to ingest The Stuff after he catches it moving in the refrigerator (!) and self-made success story Charlie, who got ripped off by his family and understandably wants revenge.
Despite this, the main characters are all surprisingly likable, and a lot of that has to do with the inherent charisma of star Moriarty, who's fantastic, and his solid chemistry with the relatively unknown Marcovicci.
As such, we find ourselves rooting for characters we might not under most circumstances, which is also a testament to writer/director Larry Cohen's savvy, fun script.
Let's take a closer look at the talents behind The Stuff. First up, there's Cohen himself. Larry Cohen got his start in TV when he was just a teenager, eventually working his way up to filmmaker, after writing scripts for various shows and the occasional movie, including The Return of the Magnificent Seven, Daddy's Gone A-Hunting and Scream Baby Scream.
He made his directorial debut with Bone, before hitting the big-time with the Blaxploitation classics Black Caesar and Hell Up in Harlem. This led to his first big studio gig, for Warner Brothers, with the huge hit It's Alive, which spawned two sequels, both of which he also directed.
Other notable efforts include the also-ahead-of-its-time cult classic God Told Me To, the loosey-goosey biopic The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (see also J. Edgar), the Creature Feature Q: The Winged Serpent and the all-star Blaxploitation revival flick Original Gangstas.
Star Michael Moriarty, who should be better-known, is just fantastic in his role as "Mo" Rutherford, so-called because he always wants "mo'," lol. His character is quick with the quip- he's the one who utters the film's tagline "Are you eating it? Or is it eating you?"- and, as sleazy as he comes off early on, he's almost instantly endearing.
Moriarty got some early attention, thanks to the one-two-three punch of roles in the classic Bang the Drum Slowly and The Last Detail on the big-screen and the TV-movie version of The Glass Menagerie, all of which were released the same year, 1973. He won an Emmy for the latter performance, and followed that up with a Tony the next year for the play Find Your Way Home.
Be that as it may, he drifted into B-Movies throughout the 80's, teaming up with Cohen for multiple other projects, including Q, It's Alive III: Island of the Alive and A Return to Salem's Lot, as well as a role in the goofball cult flick Troll.
However, in the 90's, he landed the role he's arguably best-known for, on the original Law & Order, which was obviously a huge hit. Unfortunately, he clashed with creator Dick Wolf, and was later written off the show in '94, despite the popularity of his character, Ben Stone, and the show itself, which obviously endured for many years to come.
Moriarty continues to work sporadically in both TV and films, but he never quite recovered from the slight, which branded him difficult to work with. To this day, he insists that he was only fighting to make sure the show was realistic and didn't bow down to corporate pressure to soften the violence, including specifically, from then-Attorney General Janet Reno. Just like "Mo," he's an ongoing foe to "The Man"- you gotta love it.
Co-star Andrea Marcovicci started out in TV, before landing a starring role in the Woody Allen drama The Front, the airplane disaster flick The Concorde... Airport '79, the Oliver Stone-scripted horror flick The Hand and the cult flick Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone before The Stuff came her way. After that, it was mostly back to TV, though she did make an appearance in Jack the Bear, with Danny DeVito and Gary Sinise.
Garrett Morris first made an impression with supporting roles in the Carl Reiner flick Where's Poppa?, the Sean Connery vehicle The Anderson Tapes and the Blaxploitation classics Cooley High and Car Wash, before landing the gig of a lifetime as one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live.
Morris was a regular fixture on TV from there on out, with recurring roles on The Jeffersons, Hunter, Roc, Martin, The Jamie Foxx Show and, most recently, Two Broke Girls. In addition, he also cropped up in the movies from time to time, including roles in cult faves like Children of the Night, Severed Ties and Black Scorpion (and the sequel), as well as the SNL spin-off The Coneheads, Twin Falls Idaho, How High, Who's Your Caddy?, The Longshots and Ant-Man.
Paul Sorvino, in addition to being Mira's daddy, has an illustrious career in TV, movies and theater, notably co-starring with Moriarty on Law & Order in the early 90's. He left even sooner than Moriarty, after clashing with Wolf and the writers over the direction of his character.
Fortunately, he's never lacked for work before or since. Notable roles include turns in The Panic in Needle Park, Oh, God!, The Brink's Job, Cruising, Reds, I The Jury, That Championship Season, Dick Tracy, Goodfellas, Nixon, Romeo + Juliet, Bulworth, Perfume, The Cooler, Repo! The Genetic Opera and plenty more where that came from.
Young Scott Bloom, who played Jason, went on to co-star on Who's the Boss? before drifting out of the business after a while, with occasional roles in the likes of Don's Plum, John Q and Smokin' Aces.
In addition, the film is jam-packed- or should I say stuffed?- with cameos and small roles by the likes of Danny Aiello (Do the Right Thing), Patrick O'Neal (The Stepford Wives), Alexander Scourby (Giant), Rutanya Alda (Amityville II, Girls Nite Out), Brooke Adams (The Dead Zone), Laurene Landon (the Maniac Cop series, which Cohen also scripted some of), Abe Vigoda (Barney Miller), Clara Peller (the "Where's the Beef?" lady), Eric Bogosian (who went on to write and star as a shock-jock radio host himself in the excellent Talk Radio), Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy) and the aforementioned Mira Sorvino. Most of these are of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it variety, so keep your eyes peeled!
I'd call The Stuff a "guilty pleasure," but I can't say I feel that guilty about it, really. It's shockingly prescient in many ways, as I discussed and it's actually a really well-done, fun little flick that's surprisingly well-written and makes up for in amusement value what it may lack in special effects quality.
Granted, some of the effects are pretty cool, even if they look astonishingly fake at times, but that's part of its charm. Hey, even The Blob looks pretty hokey by today's standards, and most people consider that a classic. (I prefer the remake, honestly.)
Whatever the case, you could do a lot worse, that's for sure. I'll take Cohen's brand of comedic horror over a lot of what passes for it these days, with a few exceptions. His films are just a lot of fun, with ever-quotable dialogue, insane scenarios and a surprising amount of star power on the whole. Like The Stuff, you can't devour just one.
The Stuff is readily available on DVD and Blu-Ray, including a great commentary by writer/director Larry Cohen that's well-worth a listen.
To quote the song, I can't get enough of that funky stuff. By all means, check it out! 👾💩😛💀
No comments:
Post a Comment