Why The Stuff (1985) Is the Creepy Cult Classic You Didn’t Know Your Zodiac Sign Needed—But Totally Does!
Added on October 9, 2025 inEntertainment News Cards, Movie News Cards
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Ever wonder what would happen if your Netflix binge spiraled into a full-blown commentary on consumer culture? Well, Larry Cohen’s 1985 cult classic The Stuff serves up exactly that — a gooey, gooey satire (wrapped in a horror-comedy shell) that tastes suspiciously like a jab at society’s insatiable appetite for the next best thing. And hey, with the stars juggling their cosmic dance today—think Mercury in retrograde messing with our decisions—doesn’t it feel oddly appropriate to revisit a film that pokes fun at our blind faith in shiny new products and slick advertising? Amidst the galactic chaos, Cohen’s film stands as a quirky yet sharp warning about what happens when “more” becomes a monstrous addiction. Ready to dive into a gooey 80s time capsule that’s as hilarious as it is horrifying? Buckle up. LEARN MORE
Quintessential New York filmmaker Larry Cohen wore a lot of hats during his illustrious career. That career was full of blaxploitation, comedy, thrillers, action, and some solid horror movies. He was a hell of a producer and writer as well as a director that knew his source material. I’ve been able to write a lot about his catalogue with defenses of things like A Return to Salem’s Lot or It’s Alive III, but a ton of his directorial projects need zero defense. Movies like the first It’s Alive or Q the Winged Serpent are not only fun effects creature features but surprisingly have a lot to say about aspects of society. Of course, you can’t bring up Larry Cohen movies with messages without discussing his satire on consumerism, the government, health food, and advertising without talking about 1985’s The Stuff. While it barely got a theatrical release and was cut down significantly, this comedy that was incorrectly marketed a horror film seems to have stayed in the lexicon for over 40 years now. Is enough truly never enough for The Stuff or does it fail to stand the Test of Time?
The Plot
The Stuff is a 1985 satirical comedy horror film written and directed by the legendary Larry Cohen. New World Pictures would be the ones to distribute as founder Roger Corman always had a keen eye on what he thought would do well and make a quick buck. It stars Michael Moriarty, Paul Sorvino, Danny Aiello, Andrea Marcovicci, and Garrett Morris amongst a few other names. Michael Moriarty should come as no surprise here as the four-time Emmy award winner was somewhat of a muse for Cohen. He would also be in A Return to Salems Lot, Q the Winged Serpent, It’s Alive III, and even Larry Cohen’s Masters of Horror episode. He and Paul Sorvino worked together a lot too as they both showed up in multiple episodes of Law and Order but he’s also great in stuff like Troll and Pale Rider. This might be his best role however as Mo Rutherford is as smooth as he is cagey and just the right type of jerk.
Paul Sorvino may be best known for Goodfellas and Cruising, but he has one of my all-time favorite lines as an antihero in The Rocketeer. Marcovicci has had a long and fun career with other highlights being The Hand with Michael Caine and Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. The cast, apart from Moriarty, is very Larry Cohen. None of the names are superstars but they add a lot of flavor to their roles and have great “That Guy” energy. Arsenio Hall was actually the first choice for Chocolate Chip Charlie, but the studio felt Garrett Morris was the better and more recognizable choice. Morris didn’t have a great time filming and in a much later interview chose not to say anything about Cohen since he didn’t have anything nice to say. Filming for The Stuff was brief, taking place from late August to September of 1984 in New York and Los Angeles with postproduction heading into early 1985. Cohen got the idea for the script and story with his disgust in consumerism and greed dealing with the food that was being consumed all across the country.
The Stuff opens with a strange substance coming out of the ground in a quarry in Georgia and the workers discover that it tastes good but is addicting. Some time later, it has become an institution with a full-on marketing campaign and everyone in the nation loves it. “The Stuff” as it is being marketed, is discovered by a young boy named Jason to be a living organism and he tries to not only stop his family from eating it but also destroying it at local grocery stores. Over in the corporate world, Mo Ruherford, ex FBI and current corporate espionage aficionado, is working on finding the secret formula to replicate it for another conglomerate. Mo, along with ad campaign specialist Nicole and Jason, find out that The Stuff is extra terrestrial in origin and ingesting it makes a parasitic relationship unfold where humans are almost zombie like in their control from The Stuff.
The Stuff tries to protect itself, but Mo is eventually able to destroy distribution and get the word out to the general public on how dangerous it is with the help of retired military colonel Malcolm Spears. While The Stuff is still found in alternate locations in the world, its influence is shattered…which leads to a formation of one company from two separate entities, including one that hired Mo in the first place, to create The Taste to fool the public into still ingesting this alien and making money off it. Even though they claim that the mix of 88% ice cream and 12% Stuff will make it so The Stuff can’t take them over, Mo stops this with some poetic justice and The Stuff becomes a street drug that is sold and traded in the shadows. The movie was significantly cut down as the studio wanted a straightforward horror film and Cohen gave them much more of a satire. Much of what was cut were comedic elements, but the movie was marketed as a horror film which confused movie goers. It got a limited theatrical release and probably made back its 1.7-million-dollar budget, especially after home video releases and it became a cult classic.
Signs of the Time
A couple of the signs for the film are just how violently 80s this thing is. Jason’s room in the beginning is a quintessential boy’s room. The movie and band posters on the wall, the toys that can be spotted, even the bed itself. This is an example of what someone making a period piece today would use to recreate the feel of an 80’s child’s bedroom. The commercials that are used throughout the movie, be it a musical one or standard food commercial, could have been for other products and you wouldn’t blink an eye. It works so well both within the context of what you would actually see in the decade but also with how hard products would be pushed, something Cohen wanted to zero in on. This goes even further when you realize that the “Where’s the beef” lady came back to perform her 15 minutes of fame but with The Stuff. That’s a genius move.
This is also just a pure Larry Cohen movie. As stated earlier, he is a quintessential New York filmmaker, and he has a largely New York cast with an overall New York attitude. The auteur also just kind of did his thing. He had an idea for something that he wanted to do and talk about and made it. It didn’t do great, and he moved on to the next thing. He was able to find ways to say things about important topics like abortion or parenthood in It’s Alive and how consumerism controls us here all while still doing the movie his way. In fact, you can see the workprint version before it was trimmed down on the newest 4K from Arrow and I suggest you check it out. The final thing is the special effects which range from glorious practical to woefully bad ways to make The Stuff appear more threatening with composite shots that simply don’t work.
What hold up?
Well jumping from a sign of the times to what holds up is easy when we are talking about practical effects from the 80s. Some current movies try to capture the look and feel pretty well but some of the all-time greats came out of the decade itself with The Thing, Re-Animator, and Day of the Dead. Today’s movie may not quite stand shoulder to shoulder with those but a lot of it is just wonderful. The hotel room attack where The Stuff comes out of the bed and especially Chocolate Chip Charlie’s head exploding in the recording studio hold up as all timers that can be watched out of context in full enjoyment. The Stuff itself holds up well too in both how it moves and even its alien screams when it’s attacked. While most of the movie has a comedic twinge to it, the movement and sound of the titular substance is really horrific and keeps it in the realm of that genre.
The cast is mostly great here, but we need to shout out Michael Moriarty and his particular brand of asshole as a standout. His charm and charisma are as great as his line deliveries and while he is the hero, he knows he’s kind of a scumbag too. This extends to the screenplay as well with one of my favorite lines being “You aren’t as dumb as you appear to be” getting answered with “Nobody is as dumb as I appear to be”. That script also includes solid ideas about the consumerism angle and government coverup that may hold up today even better than it did 40 years ago. The movie has aged like fine Stuff and its imminently rewatchable and up for discussion in today’s climate.
What doesn’t hold up?
As good as Moriarty and some of the other actors are, there are some weak links like Jason and his family that seem like they forget they are acting in a movie at all or conversely, overact the heck out of their scenes. The one lame Moriarty part doesn’t have anything to do with the script or his acting but how he fights The Stuff itself feeling like Bela Lugosi in Bride of the Monster. Similar to the dichotomy in the acting, some of the special effects look absolutely retched now too, possibly due to the 4K clean up showing how poorly those styles have aged. The biggest offender is when the heroes visit the pool of Stuff, and it just stands out in all the wrong ways. Along those same lines, the music and a lot of the sound effects fall flat especially when compared to the visual effects. At times it feels like the cost of the meager budget went entirely into visual effects, something that became a bit of a hot topic when the original company wasn’t fully paid after Cohen was let down by what he saw, and the music and sound were left to whatever they could scrounge up.
Finally, the movie itself can kind of drag a bit in spots. To be fair, a huge part of this has to do with how much was cut and the studio trying to turn it into a straight horror film. Much of the humor helps move the plot across quicker and because of these cuts, it feels like a less organic tonal shift than the original movie was supposed to be. All in all though, there isn’t a ton that drags that isn’t at least somewhat charming.
Verdict
This is a case of not only does the movie stand the test of time, but it has actually gotten better with age. While you could say that about Larry Cohen as a whole, this is probably his magnum opus and hits harder with its themes and commentary today than even in the decade of excess that it was made in. The Stuff may have its issues in pacing or effects that don’t quite hold up in certain places, but it is still an unsung gem of the 80s which is already full of unsung gems. Watch it any way you can but I highly recommend the fully loaded 4K by Arrow that just launched. In terms of The Stuff, enough is truly never enough!
A couple of the previous episodes of The Test of Time can be seen below. To see more, click over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
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