Halloween Horror Month - The Stuff

Two miners working underground strike an underground well of yoghurt - or something resembling yoghurt, at any rate. Being the sensible, scientific types that they are, they decide to eat some of this mystery substance bubbling up from the ground, and find that it tastes great. It isn't long before The Stuff is on shelves everywhere in America, and the ad campaign proudly states that "Enough is never enough". Other snack manufacturers aren't happy with being pushed out by The Stuff, however, and so they hire an ex-FBI and current industrial spy to find out the secret of The Stuff so that they can emulate it.

Of course, it turns out that there's something not quite right about an addictive goo that bubbles up from the centre of the earth - in this case The Stuff takes over the bodies of the people who eat it, eventually hollowing them out and wearing them like meat suits. In the end it's up to the spy, a PR woman, a 12-year-old boy and a slightly crazy milita leader to save everyone from being eaten alive by evil yoghurt.

The Stuff is a great movie. It's both a B-movie and a satire of consumerist culture; how people will buy anything if it's marketed to them right. It also feels like director Larry Cohen's version of what The Blob would be like if people ate the Blob instead of the other way round. Having Michael Moriarty in the lead role certainly doesn't hurt matters either. Most of all though, this is a movie that will make you worry about being chased by a giant sea of sentient, evil yoghurt. Not to mention the sight of what The Stuff does to your insides as it hollows you out will stay with me for a long time - not a bad effect at all for a low-budget 80s B-movie.