THE STUFF at 30: An Absorbing Horror Comedy That Challenged 1980s Consumerism

On June 14th, prolific cult filmmaker Larry Cohen’s (It’s Alive, Maniac Cop) wonderfully eclectic horror comedy The Stuff will celebrate its 30th anniversary. Released during the heyday of Reaganomics, Cohen’s playful take on modern consumerism explored society’s growing compulsions for fast food and other potentially (or even directly) harmful products that we were all happily consuming without any real knowledge of just what we were putting inside our bodies. It may not be as well-known as some of its genre peers, but The Stuff has always been a favorite of mine, especially considering the amount of ambition and passion Cohen displays onscreen from start to finish.

The Stuff is centered around a mysterious, fluffy food product known only as, well, “The Stuff.” Discovered bubbling up from the grounds in a remote mining area, the highly addictive substance is quickly marketed out as pretty much the greatest edible treat ever known to man, making it a huge sensation nationwide and ultimately putting a huge dent in the ice cream market. Enter former FBI agent-turned-industrial-spy David “Mo” Rutherford (Michael Moriarty, A Return to Salem’s Lot, Law & Order), a smooth talker hired by the heads of several ice cream manufacturers to dig up some dirt on "The Stuff" to help take down its unknown distribution company. What Mo uncovers, though, is something far more sinister than he ever imagined, as "The Stuff" is actually a parasitic alien life form with the ability to brainwash anyone who eats it, turning them into mindless zombies who only want more and more of the gooey treat.

As Mo plots to take down "The Stuff", he’s joined on his adventures by a guilt-ridden marketing executive (Andrea Marcovicci, The Hand, The Canterville Ghost), a precocious pre-teen who has also discovered that everyone’s new favorite food product is far more harmful than anyone realizes (Scott Bloom, Who’s the Boss?, Smokin’ Aces), a former cookie company owner (Garrett Morris, Saturday Night Live, 2 Broke Girls), and a disgraced military Colonel (Paul Sorvino, Goodfellas, Repo! The Genetic Opera) who hates anything un-American, including alien food substances that are infecting the general population. It’s a wildly unusual cast of characters, that’s for sure, but that is just part of why The Stuff remains wacky and entertaining fun even after three decades since it was first unleashed in a small number of theaters by New World Pictures.

Cohen’s The Stuff is a truly memorable (albeit imperfect) film for a myriad of reasons; not only did it cleverly examine some of the problems plaguing folks in the ’80s (especially at a time when most of us didn’t realize there were problems brewing at all), but it also features some incredible practical effects and an entire ensemble brimming with an infectious energy and an immense likeability to boot.

If you’ve seen The Stuff then you know that Cohen’s message about society’s penchant for blind consumerism isn’t necessarily a subtle one, but it is certainly a highly effective one nonetheless. During the 1980s, a wave of consumerism had washed over the United States in an unprecedented manner as we made our way out of the Cold War and Vietnam was squarely in our rearview. Baby boomers began spending more and more and we soon saw the rise of “Yuppie-dom”, which influenced practically all aspects of life—from the financial markets to pop culture and everything in between. We also saw a rise in two-income households during this time, with more women heading into the workforce (an increase of female executives was seen at this time as well) and as a result, we began relying on modern conveniences like fast food and microwaves to hold down the fort at home, even if we didn’t exactly grasp the longterm consequences from such consumption. But even though a correlation exists between those societal trends and the thematic elements seen throughout The Stuff, according to Cohen, the genesis for the story dates back even further than that.

“It was a response to a lot of different things,” explained Cohen during a recent chat I had with the director. “But most of all, I was trying to make a point about cigarettes. In the early days of television, almost every show was sponsored by a cigarette company. If you watched Jack Benny, it was presented by a cigarette manufacturer; if you watched a children’s show, all you’d see were cigarette jingles and commercials. They were everywhere.”

“Also, during World War II, the government was sending cigarettes away to the boys in uniform overseas while they were fighting so that when they came back, there would be a built-in customer base right there. They got them hooked and had customers forever because of that—just horrible.”

“And so I knew I couldn’t just make a documentary; no one would see it just because there wasn’t an audience for a film like that at that time," Cohen added. "I thought the best way to get my point across was to frame my ideas as a horror movie—one with a sense of humor."

Are you eating it or is it eating you?

Like many of his other classic films, the veteran storyteller decided to utilize a singular item—this time a fluffy food product— as a metaphor for the unseen terrors lurking out there. “Whenever I’m doing a horror movie, one thing I always enjoy doing is turning benevolent items into objects of terror. For It’s Alive, we made a baby scary, for God Told Me To, it was religion and Maniac Cop was us exploring the dark side of law enforcement. We even did it with The Ambulance—all these things are meant to be positive things in society and so I like to turn that idea on its head and make those things as terrifying as possible. And with The Stuff, we used food.”

It may seem like simplifying a concept by making your villain just a type of food, but in fact, it took a ton of creativity and ingenuity in order to bring "The Stuff" to life, a rather remarkable feat considering the film didn’t have the biggest of budgets at its disposal.

According to Cohen, “We had to do the effects several different ways just because of our budget—miniatures, forced perspectives. These guys were award-winning artists, so they knew precisely the tricks to make the budget work the best it could. We used the foam that firefighters sometimes used to help them fight blazes and sometimes we even used ground-up fish bones—we were definitely smelling up the place on those days, though [laughs].”

“The only real problem we ever had with the effects was just all of the set-up time because they took forever; it would take over an hour to get everything ready for some effects that would only be on the screen for a minute or two—and sometimes even less. You lose a lot of time doing it practically, but in the end, there’s no comparison for trying to fake things in a computer.”

While The Stuff boasts an outstanding ensemble, it’s easily Moriarty’s film as he does a flawless job of carrying the story, oozing razor-sharp wit and a breezy sense of charm with every line he delivers. Cohen discussed casting the acclaimed actor in the role, expressing that “Moriarty was our anchor. He’s won Golden Globe and Emmy awards throughout his career and has done a brilliant job on Broadway over the years, too. You couldn’t ask for a better actor, really. A lot of his character was in the script but because Michael is so good, he’d often improvise on set while we were shooting. It was such a kick to watch him work—he’d just throw these things out there and they were brilliant and made that character so much better.”

One thing that has always stood out to me (and I must commend Cohen for) was how he made Marcovicci’s character Nicole so much more than another horror movie damsel in distress. She was a smart, proactive, quick-witted, "take charge" type of woman who (sadly) you didn’t see too often in genre films at that time. And Cohen explains that wasn’t accidental, either.

“Usually in horror movies,” said Cohen, “when you have a character portrayed by a beautiful woman, it ends up being this thing that feels really forced—like a supermodel nuclear physicist or something. So I thought having Nicole be this powerful marketing executive who is both smart but also repentive about her role in this catastrophe and the effects it has had on the public would be something really different. There needed to be some authentic characterization there and it never hurts when you have a group of really strong actors either, and Andrea was exceptionally strong.”

As a whole, though, The Stuff is not without its problems, but it is a film that’s exceedingly clever without being too obvious about what it’s really trying to say (shout-out to both the Eaten Alive reference and the placement of Alvin Toffler’s thought-provoking socio-economic novel, The Third Wave). There’s no doubt that Cohen’s cautionary tale is a humorous yet impassioned exploration of how damaging certain aspects of consumerism can be, but unlike many films with similar ideology, The Stuff gives us a mostly optimistic ending (despite the stinger featuring Patrick Dempsey in an uncredited role as an underground “Stuff” buyer) and demonstrates that if society takes control and assumes responsibility for its actions, real change can happen for the better.