Out promoting their latest horror endeavor for Dark Castle, The Reaping (opening April 5th nationwide), twin screenwriters Chad and Carey Hayes (House of Wax), looked to the future in a one-on-one chat with this writer including one long-mooted remake currently resting in the hands of producer Scott Rudin: an update of the 1958 camp-classic The Blob starring Steve McQueen (which was already remade into a grotesque late-’80s film directed by Chuck Russell and co-written by Frank Darabont).
Taking its cue from another under-appreciated ’80s environmental genre parable C.H.U.D., the Hayes have given an anachronism to their “blob.” “It’s now ‘B.L.O.B.’ which stands for Biological Lethal Organic Bomb,” says Carey. “At the time they brought it to us we were like, ‘not interested.!’ And they said, ‘Oh come on, challenge yourselves!'”
“We stepped away for bit,” continues Chad. “We thought about it, because you want to pay homage to those creature features. It was just fun and we thought what if our own government created this thing? It got out in the ’50s, we know what it did then and we know how to contain it. Now let’s say, it’s stolen, like, from North Korea or something…” The brothers break into a laugh. If it sounds like they are aware of the concept’s tongue-in-cheek nature, you’re right. They cite the self-reflecting genre-bending Shaun of the Dead and Tremors as big influences.
Says Carey, “In this movie we do everything you’re not supposed to do. We kill the dog first, we puts kids in a lifeboat… fwoosh, they’re gone! We had so much fun scaling our [characters] down to just the Troopers – the stuff that goes on between our characters and how the Blob consumes is pretty cool.”
“It’s got an action sequence between six hammerhead sharks, the Blob and three people all in the same tank,” adds Chad with a morsel of plot info that sounds too good to be true for horror fans. “One guy, who’s bleeding is like, ‘I’m supposed to go in the shark thank? But I’m bleeding!’ And the Blob is coming at him the whole time – he doesn’t have a choice. It’s just crazy.”
Since Rudin’s departure from Paramount, the Hayes say they’re not entirely certain at what stage of development B.L.O.B. rests in as Rudin is now firmly established at Disney.
More from the brothers Hayes and The Reaping shortly! And keep an eye out for ComingSoon.net’s all-horror site, ShockTillYouDrop.com, in the next few weeks!
