Late Night Classics – The Stuff

Whatever happened to all the cool cable programming like USA Up All Night and Monstervision? Rhonda Shear’s skinamax light show ended its run in 1998 and in April 2000 Joe Bob was fired, since then, no one has taken the baton and brought the cheeseball fun of Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Sex-Comedies to the masses like these two programs did.

Well, we at Killer Film are going to change that with a new feature called ‘Late Night Classics, where we will be bringing you reviews, interviews, and screenings from various favorites that have been lost in the shuffle.

I can’t think of a better film to kick things off than Larry Cohen’s 1985 satirical riff on consumerism, The Stuff. David ‘Mo’ Rutherford [Michael Moriaty] is a industrial sabotuer who is hired by the heads of the ice cream industry to investigate the hottest dessert on the market. It flies of the shelves with its great taste, no calories, and highly addictive taste. Little does anyone know is that The Stuff is a organism that takes over your body and turns you into a pod person. With the help of a young boy [Scott Bloom], a competitor named ’Chocolate Chip’ Charlie [Garrett Morris], and a advertising executive [Andrea Marcovicci] – Mo [money] Rutherfood sets out to destroy the parasitic blob that consumes people from the inside out.

The American Cinematheque brought in Larry Cohen to the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, California for a screening of The Stuff where he talked about his underappreciated stomach churner. He discussed everything from the origins of The Stuff – which he says, “Is an alien lifeform that bubbles up from the ground”, to the early role that was given to a young Eric Bogosion as a Supermarket Clerk. Patrick Dempsey also shows up in a uncredited role as a underground Stuff buyer.

Little did everyone know that Larry brought signed containers from the film to hand out to all the fans who attended. I was lucky enough to be in the first three rows and was the first person to get one when he tossed one in the audience. I couldn’t believe that I was now an owner of a piece of history. I recall an ad in my local newspaper for the movie when it opened, and I haven’t seen it anywhere since. It had a hand reaching out of a carton of The Stuff. I’d buy that for more than a dollar if someone can find it for me.