Writer-director Larry Cohen’s The Stuff takes aim at consumerism, advertising, and right-wing paranoia, and though high on the gore quotient, it isn’t really a horror movie. Using its high-concept sci-fi premise—an evil corporation mass markets a sentient yogurt-like product that slowly takes over its consumer’s mind and body—to ground its supercharged satire, The Stuff is the Catch-22 of alien-invasion movies, made three years before Chuck Russell’s remake of Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.’s The Blob. Only here the threat comes bubbling up through the ground rather than from beyond the stars.
In the early stages of its takeover, the Stuff proves highly addictive, playing on the notion that corporations knowingly peddle harmful products to unsuspecting consumers. It also points out that consumerism itself is akin to addiction. Hooked users end up being known as “Stuffies.” Throughout, Cohen takes on the glib superficiality of contemporary advertising, down to its endlessly repetitive earworm jingles. The film’s spot-on faux ads incorporate some of the most iconic signifiers of the era—graffiti art, leg warmers, and so on—along with “testimonials” from celebrities, including Abe Vigoda and Clara Peller in a parody of the latter’s “Where’s the beef?” campaign for Wendy’s.
Elsewhere, the plight of young Jason (Scott Bloom), who battles back as his family slowly succumbs to the depredation of the Stuff, provides a dark commentary on the “family values” vociferously espoused by the Reagan administration. As in many ’80s movies, from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining to Bob Balaban’s Parents, the nuclear family proves liable to detonate in some kind of murderous rage. Here that anger is channeled into the need to conform—to assume the mantle of the ideal family as seen in numerous television ads.
The next clay pigeon Cohen sets his sights on is the use of talk radio to spread misinformation. (Nowadays, of course, the internet serves an analogous purpose.) Here that’s embodied by right-wing militia leader Colonel Malcolm Grommett Spears (Paul Sorvino), who owns the means of his own distribution by controlling several Southern radio stations. Spears comes across like a combination of Dr. Strangelove’s Colonel Jack D. Ripper, considering their shared fixation on fluoridation, and a venomous political commentator along the lines of Rush Limbaugh.
Beyond its satirical marksmanship, The Stuff is another Cohen vehicle for the deliriously jazzy riffing of actor Michael Moriarty, the quirky John Wayne to Cohen’s sardonic John Ford, at least in terms of career-spanning actor-director partnerships. Moriarty had already starred as the hysterical small-time crook (and part-time pianist) Jimmy Quinn in 1982’s Q: The Winged Serpent. He would go on to headline three more Cohen productions. Moriarty stars here as corporate spy David “Mo” Rutherford. As he happily explains to everyone he encounters, he acquired that nickname because “when people give me money, I always want mo’.” Some of Moriarty’s throwaway lines in The Stuff are truly inspired, like “Everybody has to eat shaving cream once in a while.” This has undoubtedly become somebody’s personal mantra.
Image/Sound
Arrow Video presents The Stuff in a new 2160p 4K transfer, sourced from the original 35mm camera negative, that looks simply fantastic. There’s a significant boost to the film’s bright and shiny color scheme compared to earlier home video releases, especially the purples, pinks, and whites that constitute the Stuff’s marketing campaign. Fine details of décor and costume boldly stand out, fine film grain holds true throughout, and black levels in a few key nighttime scenes appear deep and thoroughly uncrushed. Audio comes in an English LPCM mono mix that sounds excellent, clearly conveying dialogue and the at times hyperactive sound design.
Extras
For this release, Arrow has unearthed the pre-release version of The Stuff, which runs a whole 30 minutes longer, with more faux commercials, extended scenes, all new scenes that help to flesh out the relationship between Michael Moriarity and Andrea Marcovicci’s characters in particular, and an entirely different score. Especially potent is the final image: a billboard advertising a package of the Stuff that’s being consumed by flames in slow motion.
For a deep dive into all things Cohen, there are an entertaining archival commentary track, a thorough making-of documentary with Cohen and other crew members, and an interview using material shot for the 2017 documentary King Cohen. There’s some inevitable overlap here, but the stories are all fascinating and often hilarious. Cohen is always an enviable raconteur.
A far-ranging new audio commentary features critics David Flint and Adrian Smith, who delve into Cohen’s career in film and TV, situate The Stuff in context with other sci-fi movies of the era like John Carpenter’s The Thing, and share tidbits about the film’s production history that aren’t touched on elsewhere. Also included is 42nd Street Memories, a feature-length documentary about the rise and fall of the Deuce, featuring an impressive array of producers, filmmakers, distributors, actors, including, of course, Cohen. Of especial interest to cinephiles will be the mini-profiles of various theaters and their programming proclivities.
Overall
Larry Cohen’s The Stuff is a barbed satire of 1980s consumer culture.
Score:
Cast: Michael Moriarty, Andrea Marcovicci, Garrett Morris, Paul Sorvino, Scott Bloom, Danny Aiello, Patrick O’Neal, James Dixon, Alexander Scourby Director: Larry Cohen Screenwriter: Larry Cohen Distributor: Arrow Video Running Time: 87 min Rating: R Year: 1987 Release Date: July 22, 2025 Buy: Video
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