The other night I rewatched Larry Cohen's darkly comic
horror film THE STUFF (1985). It was the first time I had seen it since the
late 1980's when I rented the VHS tape and found it mildly amusing. This time
out I liked it a great deal more and - aside from a few caveats - think its one
of my favorites of Cohen's directorial career and possibly one of his best. Of
the few problems I have with the film the worst is the frequent use of ADR
voiceover to detail plot points that the film has communicated sloppily or not
at all. This is a standard problem with lower budgeted genre efforts and one
I'm generally willing to overlook, but it happened a few too many times for me
to ignore. From what I could glean from the DVD's commentary some of these
moments in the film are workarounds that Cohen had to use to fix problems
created by his producers' demands but I've seen this technique in too many
other of his movies to take that explanation at face value. Still- I like this
film flaws and all! It's another in the fine line of subversive
'capitalism-out-of-control' warning films that the 1980's bred all the way up
through Carpenter's THEY LIVE (1989). And Michael Moriarty is amazing to watch
in this as he struts around slurring his words and droppin' his g's with a slight
southern drawl - I can't take my eyes off of him and his hairpiece!
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