Larry Cohen’s typically trenchant attack on consumerism is part “blob” movie, part satire and all uniquely Cohen. Inexplicably, it seems to be one of his least admired films despite being a clever and frequently very funny swipe at the ubiquitous and seemingly ever-growing fast food industry. To achieve the effect, Cohen is happy enough to ransack the rich catalogue of 50s American science fiction films, quoting from the paranoid likes of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1955) and Invaders from Mars (1953).
FBI agent turned industrial saboteur David “Mo” Rutherford (Michael Moriarty) is hired by leading lights from the ice cream industry who are growing increasingly concerned by the popularity of The Stuff, a no calorie dessert of dubious origin (a pre-credit sequence shows that it’s a natural substance that bubbles up out of the ground) that they want to know more about. Mo teams up with junk food mogul Chocolate Chip Charlie (Garrett Morris), advertising executive Nicole (Andrea Marcovicci), the young Jason (Scott Bloom) who has seen The Stuff moving around in his fridge on its own and, late in the day, a crazed militia leader (Paul Sorvino) to get to the bottom of the mystery. They discover that The Stuff is a living creature that is highly addictive when ingested and which leads to aggressive, zombie-like behaviour as it eats away at consumers from within.
The Stuff doesn’t waste any time in getting going, establishing the origins and discovery of the eponymous food stuff in a brief pre-credits sequence and as the story itself begins, The Stuff is already in refrigerators across America. The film was heavily cut by distributors New World Pictures who were unhappy that Cohen had delivered a satire rather than the more straight forward horror film they were expecting and a frequent charge against the film is that it sometimes feels disjointed. The result was that the film moved a lot faster than it did in Cohen’s initial cut but it left some viewers dissatisfied. “It was perhaps a wise decision to cut some of those scenes out,” Cohen later reflected, “because I don’t think they played well in the totality of the film. The story needed to drive forward at certain points and not be slowed down with extraneous material, although it can be painful cutting scenes out that you like.” 1
But if the plot can sometimes seem “bitty” and fitful, there are still so many things to enjoy about The Stuff, not least the performances. Cohen regular Michael Moriarty (he also appeared in Q (1982), It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987) and A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987)) is fantastic as the not as dumb as he looks Mo (“No-one is as dumb as I appear to be…”) and although he disappears from the plot for much of the film, Garrett Morris is hilarious as the kung-fu fighting biscuit entrepreneur Chocolate Chip Charlie. Late in the day there’s another very funny turn, this one from Paul Sorvino as doltish militia leader Colonel Spears, easily played by the manipulative Mo. The sight of his nut job militia, heavily armed and acting ridiculously macho, riding to the rescue in a convoy of taxis is one of Cohen’s silliest but funniest moments.
The effects are incredibly good given the paucity of Cohen’s budget. There are a few very obvious optical effects here and there and the explosions at the Stuff refinery feature some very obvious models but their are some remarkable effects of the Stuff on the move, leaving behind bodies with grotesquely distorted mouths. The scene in the motel room, where Mo and Nicole’s bed turns out to be full of Stuff that springs into live, trying to kill them and pushing an intruder up the wall and onto the ceiling is particularly memorable.
But despite the fun effects and the biting satire, The Stuff can also be very creepy when it wants to be. The scene with Ben the Stuff-addicted dog is particularly eerie as is the realisation that the small town near the refinery has been over-run by equally addicted zombies is straight of the out of the paranoid 50s science fiction playbook.
Peppered with Cohen’s trademark one-liners (“I like the sight of blood,” admits Spears after shooting a Stuff zombie and his body starts leaking dessert, “but this is disgusting”) and full of faux television adverts with their annoying jingle and cameos from genre favourites (among them Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Anthony Perkins, Barbara Crampton, Jeffrey Combs and Laurene Landon) The Stuff is funny, creepy, clever and a worthy addition to Cohen’s always inventive and utterly unique body of work. It wasn’t a hit when it was released and hasn’t really attained the exalted heights of films like It’s Alive (1974), God Told Me To (1976) or Q. It deserves better. It’s a funny film with a lot to say and above all it’s hugely entertaining.
- Larry Cohen: The Stuff of Gods and Monsters by Michael Doyle ↩
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