Be Kind Rewind – Party Like It’s 1959!

By Michael Nazarewycz

Remakes are nothing new.

See what I did there?

Oh sure, remakes are the scourge of today’s cinema, but they were also around in OUR decade too. Ripe for such remakes were popular sci-fi films of the 1950s and why not? When were the two biggest “Red scare” decades? The 1950s and the 1980s. Here’s a fun double feature that will take you “back in time” ...

The Thing
1982
Starring Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, and Keith David
Directed by John Carpenter

At a scientific research station in Antarctica, a team of Norwegians inadvertently unleashes an alien from a spaceship found frozen in the ice. The Norwegians are killed, and a nearby American research station finds itself up against the creature, which has the ability to imitate perfectly any living thing it so chooses, from dogs to humans. The group of Americans, led by R.J. MacReady (Russell), must determine who the “fake” member of their team is, and determine a way to stop the alien, before they are systematically killed. This film is a remake of 1951’s The Thing From Another World.

The Blob
1988
Starring Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, and Donovan Leitch
Directed by Chuck Russell

When a mass of ooey-gooey ... ya know, stuff ... falls from space and lands near a small town, it starts eating the townsfolk. As it does so, it gets bigger and bigger. Only a cheerleader (Smith) and a thug (Dillon) – who is only misunderstood, of course – can save the surviving skeptics. However, as the thug comes to learn, it seems that the government, as part of a biological weapons program, might be responsible for having created the creature. This film is a remake of 1958’s The Blob, which starred Hollywood icon Steve McQueen.