everyday is halloween: the stuff [1985]

 

veteran exploitation filmmaker larry cohen penned & directed this satire on american consumer culture & cutthroat capitalism.  lensed as a tonge-in-cheek but with more than a little bit of blood i remember watching this flick on cable TV back in the day & really digging its tone.  the last time i saw this movie was when i was dating anna.  we were hanging out in her bedroom watching TV.  i was working part-time as the quasi-manager/grunt at the university recycling center & it had been a rather exhausting day at work.  one of the local radio DJs hosted a weekly horror movie show & this pic was the feature for the night.

i remember anna not really digging it.  she's not a fan of horror movies.  but i freaking loved it.  it is funny & loaded with bit parts & cameos from abe vigoda & clara peller [who?  she was quite well-known for the 'where's the beef' series of TV commercials for the fast-food chain Wendy's], paul sorvino, garrett morris, patrick o'neal & danny aiello, among others.  cohen really must've called in the favors!  shot in the neon colors of the 1980s the visual flair of this movie reminds the viewer that the 1980s sure loved neon, day glo & pastels.  

but what is the stuff?  it's some goo burbling from the ground that tastes like yoghurt or ice cream.  soon the mining company that discovered it has marketed it all over the country as a dessert.  but this shit ain't your typical sweet treat.  it is addictive beyond measure.  & it has a mind of its own.  the stuff can move blob-like.  its heavy users eat nothing but the stuff & become homicidal maniacs.  the stuff on its own is a murderous psycho that will kill anyone or anything that prevents it from world domination.  

enter david 'mo' rutherford, played by the always solid michael moriarty.  mo is an industrial saboteur hired by rival companies to find out what the stuff is made of & destroy its company.  however, mo finds out the nefarious nature of the stuff & works for the rest of the screentime to help break america's addiction to the sweet dessert & breaking the company that sells it.  mo is aided by a teen, jason, played by scott bloom, who saw the stuff move on its own volition & watched his family succumb to their addiction to the sweet treat, & nicole kendall, played by andrea marcovicci, an ad exec who was instrumental in selling the stuff to u.s. consumers.

but if you want a deep dive into a critical document of american consumerism you've come to the right place.  for larry cohen has created a black comedy of capitalism.  you'd think mo rutherford would be the bad guy because he is a professional industrial saboteur.  you'd think nicole would be the bad guy because her work in advertising helped the stuff sell like hot cakes.  instead cohen subverts their roles & makes these two superheroes of a kind.  freedom is to choose what products we use & consume.  but freedom, i think according to larry cohen's script, is to reject those products that are marketed to us.  even more so, freedom is to critique our very culture that has created 20th C & 21st C marketing that deliberately targets you so, in a real but paradoxical manner, you are given no choice to choose.  

but then my beloved genre of horror has always been the bastard child of culture where it can shout out the terrors & injustices of our human being.  i've always liked the actor michael moriarty.  he possesses a wit & gravitas that nearly always elevates his stories.  one of my favorite episodes of masters of horror anthology series [2005 - 2007] is the story of two competing serial killers, pick me up (season 1, episode 11), also directed by larry cohen, from a story by splatterpunk maestro david j. schow, features moriarty as a truck driving, high living, candy eating, chain smoking serial killer, called wheeler.  the dude is a force of goddamn nature.

but this is larry cohen's movie.  his skills & talents as a horror/exploitation auteur are abundantly evident in this flick.  there are some laugh aloud moments.  & a few times of sheer terror.  for that is horror in a nutshell.  it can make you laugh just after you are so scared you cry for momma!

boo!