The Stuff
1985, 93 Minutes, Rated R
Thanks to the glorious people at Netflix, The Stuff is available to watch at will, which is great. Kinda.
The Stuff’s star, Michael Moriarty, is a native of Detroit and attended University of Detroit High School. His dad was a staff physician with the Detroit Police Department. Actor Moriarty went to college in New Hampshire and later moved to England where he trod the boards for a few years and built up a respectable name in theater.
The same year as The Stuff, Moriarty appeared in Pale Rider. He would go on to star in such fine films as Troll, A Return to Salem’s Lot and It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive, though he probably will be best remembered for his role as Ben Stone in Law and Order. But back to The Stuff.
An old dude finds thick, white goo oozing and literally bubbling out of the ground. For no good reason, his first instinct is to taste it. Me, I’d kinda hurry on by and just try not to tread in it, but this guy eats the ground goop without a moment’s hesitation. Whaddaya know, it’s delicious.
Before you know it, the grocery stores are full of “The Stuff” (as it is called), and people are buying it by the crate-load. It looks a bit like that Fluff, that marshmallow in a jar paste, but it is apparently as addictive as crack.
The moral of the story is: don’t eat shit you find on the floor if you don’t know what it is, and especially if it’s bubbling. The Stuff, as it turns out, is alive and subsequently possesses the people that eat it.
Whole families are throwing out every other food item in the house and living 100 percent off of The Stuff. One young lad sees it moving in the fridge – never a good sign – so he won’t touch it. His mom and dad get pissed, possessed as they are, but he escapes — and our hero, Moriarty, helps him out. Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with yoghurt.
There was a message in the film: Don’t eat junk food and fall prey to heavy marketing. But that was 28 years ago and we learned nothing from The Stuff. Oh well, the film’s jacket is still great. mt
The Stuff is available to watch on Netflix now.
