Another Form of Life: Science-Fiction Marketing and The Blob (1958)

This essay considers how marketing for The Blob (1958) responded to what Variety in the later 1950s termed an "erratic" market for science fiction. While the genre was highly popular early in the decade, by the late 1950s large studios were either abandoning science fiction or releasing cheap independent productions. Facing this situation, Paramount turned The Blob into a much-discussed success largely because of the way it framed its potential audience, not simply aiming at a youth demographic, but positioning that audience as highly aware of the exploitation that usually surrounded the film industry's treatment of both the genre and the youth market.