The Stuff (Larry Cohen, US 1985)

What’s white, gooey, delicious—and determined to eat you? In Larry Cohen’s gloriously deranged The Stuff (1985), America goes crazy for a mysterious new dessert that bubbles up out of the ground, tastes terrific, and has just one tiny drawback: the more you eat, the more it eats you. Part Invasion of the Body Snatchers, part attack on Reagan-era consumer culture, and part movie that seems to have been conceived at 3 a.m. over several beers, The Stuff gives us killer yogurt, exploding heads, evil advertising executives, a kung-fu chocolate-chip-cookie mogul, and Michael Moriarty delivering one of the strangest leading-man performances of the 1980s. Is it horror? Comedy? Satire? A feature-length warning against frozen yogurt? Yes. Come to The 101, buy a beer, lose your inhibitions, and remember the film’s immortal advice: ENOUGH IS NEVER ENOUGH.

Reviews:

“Chaotic, surreal, and very, very subversive.”

—Time Out

“A nifty horror movie that’s clever, satirical, and funny.”

—Gannett News Service

“What’s not to like? The film enjoys a larky sense of innocence, some hideous gaping mouths full of a curdling, parasitic menace, and a fey performance by Michael Moriarty.”

—Variety

Free and un-ticketed.

Trailer