Wow, this movie was wretched! *spoiler*

Go away.

no explanation as to what The Stuff actually was!

Why must EVERYTHING be explained in movies? Just go with it was some weird new life form / parasite that just happens to be super tasty

I agree with fiatlux. I also remember being very intrigued and unsettled by the the front vhs cover picture of people melting and being eaten alive by the stuff. I figured that the film itself would have been every bit as disturbing as that picture.
When I finally got around to watching the movie several years later, I couldn't believe how awful it is. It's a horribly made movie (terrible acting, fx, story, plot, editing). I also found it to be incredibly boring. I wanted to see brutal bloody massacre of people being eaten from the inside out. Instead, I got some weird, boring technical drama about the FDA with a few horror elements thrown in. I don't care if the budget was $1 million. They still could have done a much more resourceful job even with that amount of money. No wonder New World Pictures went under not too long after they released this movie.

well sir or m'am.... if u atak on a films it cud b called such h8 spch ok??? so pls dnt b so mean as such nxtime........ ok.

I agree...it was terrible...and not even "good terrible".

How bad was the part where the two lead adult characters just leave the kid on the plane and completely forget about him?

Or how selective was The Stuff itself? It sometimes would move and attack and other times, it simply seemed it was an addictive dessert. In the movie you never which version of The Stuff they were going to have in a scene.

Just plain awful.

If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, nobody else wanted them either.

The acting in this movie is atrocious across the board.

Its a sentient dessert

I'd place it in the "so bad it's good" category. Treat it as a comedy or a car crash of a movie like something Ed Wood would be making if he was directing in the 80's and it's a fun ride. But yeah, there's a lot of bad.

The main threat of the film being a nefarious dessert is not "the stuff" of nightmares.
Moriarty's obvious hairpiece. Not to mention those appalling clothes.
The script is laughable.
The editing is atrocious.
An entire army living in a castle in the middle of nowhere for some reason, commanded by a fat Italian who runs a radio station.
The lead character having the incredible ability to knock everyone out with a single punch, even ones to the back of the neck.

There are some truly laughable scenes in this film but I still find it enjoyable, they don't make them like this any more, for better or worse.