The Stuff (1985) Limited Edition 4K UHD (blu-ray/UHD review).

Forget about eating ice cream; you want to try The Stuff. It’s got a sweetness that will make you want to eat it more and more. ‘Enough is never enough,’ as they say frequently. The company has its enemies, chiefly from the ice cream manufacturers, who employ an ex-FBI agent and now industrial spy David ‘Mo’ Rutherford (actor Michael Moriarty) to find out what is in The Stuff and even stop its manufacture.

The Stuff is protected by the same American law that also preserves the secret of the ingredients of Coke, the drink, not the drug. Rutford begins to investigate and befriends its publicist, Nicole Kendell (actress Andrea Marcovicci), to help him. As they investigate where The Stuff was first made, Rutford bumps into Chocolate Chip Charlie Hobbs (actor Garett Morris), another ice cream manufacturer doing his own investigation, although when they flee, the local attacking townsfolk split up.

Elsewhere, young Jason (actor Scott Bloom), early in the morning, sees some of the Stuff in the fridge move on its own volition. His dad disapproves of him being up so early and later, at breakfast, refuses to eat The Stuff. Later, at the hypermarket, he causes carnage, smashing up The Stuff products. He gets sent home and grounded until his family persuades him to eat The Stuff. He cheats, eating shaving cream instead, and finally manages to flee. As his activity in the hypermarket was in the press, Rutherford and Nicole rescue him, and he stays with them when they go to The Stuff factory in Midland, Georgia. They leave him in the aeroplane, but Jason is forced to flee when The Stuff is poured into the cockpit, attacking the pilot..

After fleeing the factory, Rutford seeks out the very right-wing Colonel Malcolm Spears (actor Paul Sorvino) and his unit to go on the offensive and alert people of The Stuff’s danger.

The rest is a spoiler. Sort of. It’s a 1985 film, so some of you must have seen it. I didn’t but had read about it in ‘Fangoria’ at the time. As a low-budget Larry Cohen film, I don’t think it had a wide circulation in the UK.

There are some flaws. I mean, when you consider The Stuff was enjoyed by so many people, how could a message on television cause people to riot and destroy it instead? At least we still have The Taste, and people love that.

Another flaw in this film. How did Rutherford and Jason manage to avoid eating The Stuff? It is said that not everyone is susceptible to The Stuff, and you have to eat a quantity in the first place. The thing is, The Stuff had to be around for at least half a year, so more people must have eaten it and been zombified or bodysnatched by then. Why wasn’t it sold abroad?

For its budget and pre-CGI, the depiction of the real Stuff is pretty enticing, with only one special effect letting things down a little, but that’s a spoiler.

There are two audio commentaries. The first is with two British reviewers, David Flint and Adrian Smith, trading information on topics like Moriarty’s wig, his ad-libbing, and director/writer Larry Cohen’s career. Keep a notepad nearby on the ladder, so there’s a fair bet you’ll develop a list of Cohen’s films to watch. His career includes working on TV, including ‘The Invaders’ and ‘Columbo.’ They wondered about him moving away from directing back to just writing, but I suspect he had a better turnover doing that considering how many ideas he put in his films.

The second commentary is with the film’s director, Larry Cohen (1936-2019), which obviously puts a date on the film. It gives some insights into being an independent film director/scriptwriter. Taking advantage of a snowfall in the opening. Rewriting the script dialogue as he went, reusing actors who could tolerate the way he worked and who often came in on their days off to watch the action. ‘The Stuff’s premiere was on a New York hurricane day, and despite getting good reviews, the soggy papers could not be distributed. I do agree with him that the film company could have used The Stuff as yoghurt and promoted it as real until revealing it as a killer, which would have been a good idea.

Considering the way the effects were made, I’m surprised there was never a remake using CGI, although Cohen thinks it would have been too smooth. He praises special effects people Jim Danforth and David Allen (1944-1999), the latter dying shortly before this audio commentary had been recorded. Cohen described his own directing/writing process, where he took advantage of the settings he found and adjusted the script accordingly. Definitely not film school. I doubt if any of his practices could be carried out today, but it might give some of you wanting to do your own films some interesting ideas.

Now, the rest of the extras.

The first, ‘Can’t Get Enough Of The Stuff,’ runs at 52 minutes and was made in 1985ish. Director/writer Larry Cohen, producer Paul Kurta, special effects artist Steve Neil, actress Andrea Marcovicci, and film critic Kim Newman. Cohen is more precise about the dangers of drugs in the USA and how many get sold despite some being deadly and points out that cigarettes killed more Americans than the Germans and Japanese combined after World War Two.

Steve Neil points out that Cohen normally used special effects artist Rick Baker but, as he wasn’t available, was recommended to the gig. Cohen explains that the reason actors kept coming back was because he got that excited, involved, and busy in each production. He has no idea what happened to the extra adverts he made, which would have been extras today. The stuff was made of various materials, but it looks like the worst was a smelly firefighting spray made of fishbone. You do have to hope they’ve changed that one since then.

The sixteen-minute ‘Enough Is Never Enough’ is mostly Larry Cohen with a dash of Paul Kurta, filmed in 2017, covering much of the same ground, but at least they are consistent.

‘42nd Street Memories’ runs at 81 minutes and looks at this New York area off the Port Authority bus station as it fell into decline after being a popular theatre area. A lot of film directors, including Joe Dante and a dash of Larry Cohen, and other people give an insight into the area as it became a cheap grindhouse area with continual showings of old films, then modern films, and then porn. Frankly, it didn’t look like a place you would want to visit alone. Even the druggies went elsewhere to buy their drugs, which tells how bad it was. It’s a compelling documentary, and I found myself noting some of the more regular films to see if they are worth a look. It doesn’t exist anymore, as video took the audience home, and after a cleanout, it is now owned by Disney.

‘Enough is never enough.’ Don’t believe all the trailers at the end as you eat from your tub of The Stuff. You won’t want to stop.

GF Willmetts

July 2025

(pub: Arrow Video, 2025. 87 minute film with extras. UHK and DVD disks. Price: £24.99 (UK) ASIN:‎ B08R5LKSR2).

cast: Michael Moriarty, Andrea Marcovicci, Garett Moris, Paul Sorvino, Scott Bloom, Patrick O’Neal.

check out website: www.arrowfilms.com/the-stuff-limited-edition-4k-uhd/16553799.html