I have always heard that the mark of a good story teller is
one who can convey everything they need to in as little time as possible. Seven Samurai, which clocks in at around
three and a half hours is a spectacular movie, no doubt one of the greatest and
most impressive outputs the cinema has ever seen. But more impressive I would
say is Ingmar Bergman’s Persona. In a
mere 87 minutes Bergman’s mesmerizing and illusionary tale carries the
emotional weight well beyond any epic and lengthy masterpiece.
In a similar way (though I must immediately add that this is
certainly the only thing they have in common), Larry Cohen’s schlock horror
piece The Stuff has a running time of 86 minutes. Does this mean it is a well-constructed,
elegantly condensed narrative film like Persona? Of course not. This just so happens to be the kind of movie
that refutes my prior paragraph.
As it begins, the movie wastes no time introducing its
audience to “the stuff-” a creamy milky-looking goo found in the ground that
suddenly becomes the most delicious and addicting dessert in America. The director finds no better way to
communicate this information than by having the movie’s first speaking
character make abrupt exclamatory statements out loud to no one. Of course, we have to assume that his
Schizophrenic outbursts are “important information” geared towards the
audience. This old man is the first person to discover “the stuff” seeping up
through the dirt. And as anyone’s first
instinct would be when finding a mysterious goo bubbling in the ground, the man
immediately reaches down to taste it. In
his favor, the substance was not some sort of hydrochloric poison that burnt
his tongue clean off. Of course not, it
tastes wonderful and from here enters The Stuff, a delicious dessert snack that
floods the super markets and kitchens of every household in America even
putting ice cream distributors out of business.
