sequel or remake?

I think it's a stretch to say "way better special effects". CGI these days, while greatly improved from 15 years ago, still doesn't match the effectiveness of practical special effects. The practical effects in the '88 version of The Blob are what make it such a great movie, and it's evident that a lot of work and people were behind them. CGI is great for certain special effects like creating landscapes, cities, or other large-scale, but stationary things. Unfortunately, it doesn't work as well for creating realistic, living, moving things. The Blob itself still looks great to this day because it was an actual, tangible thing being filmed. I'll give you that some of the miniature shots (particularly with the stop motion dolls) haven't aged well, but the rest is spectacular.

The 1988 version scared the hell out of me as a kid. My brother as a practical joke, decided to mess with the upstairs hallway light after the scene in The Blob, where the theater guy gets it in I think it was the protection room. My brother went upstairs to hide to scare me, and set the upstairs light switch in the middle. That meant that I couldn't flip the switch downstairs, in order to come upstairs with light on, and he was hiding up there waiting for me. I was petrified, so I grabbed the flashlight, but it didn't work. However I announced to my hiding brother that if he tried to scare me, I would swing the heavy flashlight and it would most likely hit him. Next thing I knew the light came on, his head appeared at the top of the screen door and he replied "You're no fun."

That should have read protection room.

Projection room. Damn autocorrect !