The Stuff poster & wallpaper

Abe Vigoda, Alexander Scourby, Andrea Marcovicci

Flixster Users

50% liked it

5,282 ratings

Critics

63% liked it

8 critics

R, 1 hr. 33 min.

Directed by: Larry Cohen

Release Date: June 14, 1985

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DVD Release Date: October 24, 2000

Stats: 349 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (349)

  • creepfreak
    October 23, 2008
    creepfreak
    The Stuff is a fantastic B horror movie. Yes it's sort of cheesy, but this movie is fun as hell. This is the kind of movie I can see Elvira hosting on a late night Creature Feature. It almost plays off like a cheap 50's B sci-fi/horror film that would see at a drive thru. The Stu...( read more)ff isn't scary, it's not intense, and it's not that gory. The Stuff is just an entertaining, wacky, and wild romp! You can't take this movie seriously or you'll be hugely disappointed. Larry Cohen's intentions wasn't about making a serious movie. The Stuff is strictly tongue in cheek. Everything in this movie was done for a purpose. From it's bad acting, to the playful script and many cuckoo characters...all of this works to the film's advantage. The Stuff is another great movie for the Halloween season.

    Another thing...The Stuff looks so damn deliciously good and creamy. I would eat it in a heartbeat. F**k being invaded by it's evilness! It looks so damn tasty!


    "An Entertaining Slice of B-Movie Schlock"
    - eFilmCritic

    "I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie. I knew it would be cheesy, because of the title and plot, but I didn't expect to find it so fun to watch."
    - Upcoming Horror Movies

    "This movie is hilarious! Doesn't really show much script wise, but it's so funny. Anyone who likes some of the lesser-known films of the 80's might appreciate this little gem."
    - Bloody Disgusting.com

    "The Stuff isn't the deepest or most thought-provoking production of all time, but it does make a valid point and does so in an intelligent and amusing way. It's a great way to spend an afternoon and has a genuine charm that one can enjoy."
    - Scared Stiff Reviews

    "For fans of sly horror movies with something to say, this is The Stuff you're looking for."
    - Apollo Movie Guide

    "More or less forgotten in today's day and age, The Stuff is an enjoyable, cheesy 1980s horror film from director Larry Cohen. Though it's classified as horror, it isn't scary at all. It's really more of a campy film with a neat premise, and with social commentary to lend it more credibility."
    - Silver Screen Reviews

    "***1/2 Larry Cohen's The Stuff is perhaps best described as Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Irvin Yeaworth's The Blob, replete with a black humor, Z-movie premise, presented via Swiftian satire, as the director highlights the absurdity of mass consumerism in a manner akin to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead."
    - The Horror Review

    "The Stuff is as entertaining as a movie about Killer Yogurt can get. All the stock characters are in place, the cliché playbook is run through with a fine toothed comb and as you might expect the movie is appropriately gooey."
    - Brokedown Cinema
  • bradwest
    October 2, 2008
    bradwest
    OK take off on The Blob. Not as good as the remake of The Blob though.
  • FangsFirst
    March 1, 2008
    FangsFirst
    Larry Cohen as a director is someone I first associated with Leonard Maltin's reviews of Q, the Winged Serpent and the three It's Alive films. I didn't get around to seeing any of his work until the last few years, and found his style shockingly unlike I expected.

    The Stuff cont...( read more)inues in the same stylistic vein as his other films I've seen (so far, primarily the It's Alive trilogy), a strange sort of low-budget cinema-verité-fantastique. Shots tend to be very straightforward, and with a strong emphasis on characters, situations, topics and ideas rather than effects. Of course, the fact that his effects and the supernatural or abnormal things they are part of tend to be highly satirical, euphemistic or symbolic probably helps to solidify this feeling. It is in this light that he maintains a stunning cohesion and skill in films about mind-controlling, man-eating dessert and mutant killer babies. Somehow both are approach with, at most, a very black sense of humour. The Stuff is certainly more toward the amusing side of things, filled with ridiculously accurate and (intentionally) stupid ads for "The Stuff," a white, creamy substance that bubbles up from underground and is apparently both addictive and great-tasting. Cohen, as usual, makes his satire sort of vague--obviously criticizing consumerism and advertising, but what is "The Stuff"? Is it just a dessert--or are the similarities to cocaine many have noted intentional? Coca-Cola is used as a reference point in the film for the ability for The Stuff to have a secret recipe--is it any coincidence that part of Coke's secret recipe used to be cocaine? These things are never really answered (and I'm too far behind in movie-watching to run around listening to commentaries).

    David "Mo" Rutherford (Cohen regular Michael Moriarty) is an ex-FBI industrial saboteur, hired to find out the source and origin of "the Stuff" and what its recipe is. He comes to various people, including FDA man Vickers (Danny Aiello!) and ad-campaign designer Nicole (Andrea Marcovicci) and eventually young boy Jason (Scott Bloom) whose entire family is taken over by the Stuff. Cohen is a little clumsy sometimes in getting from one place to another (though on occasion it appears he is deftly sweeping away a partial failure of an effect, for which he is to be commended), but by and large chooses paths a film like this would not have chosen in other hands. The rather chilling scene where Jason's family encourages him to join them in their Stuffy-zombie state, for instance, using parental pressure to test his stance. Certainly on the surface this is something I've seen before, especially in 80s films about Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style takeovers, but the exact approach, and the way the family interacts is at least a little bit smarter than we usually see.

    Moriarty is as creepily off-putting as always. I really shouldn't have watched that interview with him on the DVD for Cohen's Masters of Horror episode. He comes off as a pseudo-intellectual conservative lunatic with a slim grip on reality, and it put me off him forever after. He has fantastic energy and really has fun with any part he plays--here a clever investigator masquerading as a total goof, but something about him is just unsettling to me. All the same, his performances work in the movie anyway as it's only a background twitch. However, his energy is pretty thoroughly exhausted when compared to Garrett Morris as "Chocolate Chip" Charlie Hobbs, an ice cream man whose company was taken away from him by the men who fund the "mining" and sale of the Stuff. He has hands "registered as lethal weapons," and a smooth-talking businessman's approach to things.

    I've got to say the most amusing surprises of all, though, were Paul Sorvino as a Commie-obsessed secluded Colonel, poking clear fun at the gung-ho attitudes of some military men (and further confusing the suggestions of Cohen's politics seen in films and in Moriarty's creepy analysis) and the paranoia intrinsic to the Cold War, and Patrick Dempsey (not that I'd recognize him...) in a brief cameo. But my favourite bit--and I had to rewind to make sure I didn't imagine it--was Eric Bogosian, author of Talk Radio, as a supermarket clerk who has to restrain the Stuff-hating crusader Jason when he realizes that it can move on its own. And did I mention that? The Stuff moves on its own, in a fascinating and interesting way, either pouring in a viscous but rapid fashion or stretching and jumping in a form that resembles something from my youth--a sort of home-made silly putty that I seem to recall involved bleach, but it has been quite some time. It's both nauseating and actually almost enticing. What does this stuff taste like? I imagine something airy and sweet, sort of like Icees. But maybe it's better not to be enticed by The Stuff.
  • YosemiteSamFan
    August 11, 2007
    YosemiteSamFan
    Cheaply made, but imaginative cautionary tale about consumerism and what might happen if a dangerous mutational product got on the market. Cool concept for a movie.
  • drblood
    June 24, 2007
    drblood
    There are many funny moments among all the squelchy deaths and Michael Moriarty is perfectly cast as the industrial spy who ends up a hero.
  • dukeakasmudge
    October 12, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    Its like The Blob except in yogurt form
  • sarxoxo
    September 26, 2009
    sarxoxo
    "mm look bubbling white shit on the ground. lets eat it!"
    i'll never eat marshmallow fluff again.
  • spacecasefukface
    September 25, 2009
    spacecasefukface
    " you can't get enough...of THE STUFF" this movie is a addictive campy 80's kiddie horror movie. Staring Michael Moriarty(law and order) and he always wants moe
  • MightySparks
    September 4, 2009
    MightySparks
    I liked the idea, but some of it dragged on a bit. But I thought it was pretty cool, and any kind of 'zombie' movies are awesome.
  • wataki2
    August 8, 2009
    wataki2
    OMG!!! I remember this movie from my childhood,(lol),And have been looking 4 it 4 some time now,its pretty camp though,(lol)

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Critic Reviews

February 12, 2006
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

Its execution never lives up to its scrumptious satiric premise. full review

View more The Stuff reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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