The Thing (1982)
Director: John Carpenter
Genre: Horror/Suspense
THE MOVIE:
John Carpenter's The Thing is the story of a small group of men who are manning a remote American Antarctic outpost. Their isolation is interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious dog which is chased by a helicopter from a distant Norwegian settlement. Attempting to kill the dog, the helicopter and it's pilot are destroyed. MacReady (Kurt Russell) and some others from the American base investigate the Norwegian settlement to find it destroyed. They also find what appears to be a flying saucer half buried in the ice and a mangled semi-human body.
When they return to the American station, the mysterious dog begins to mutate into some sort of Lovecraftian tentacle monster, attempting to absorb and mutate the other dogs in its pen but is torched by the crew before it can finish. From here we can very well have Alien On Ice, after all, this was produced immediately after the success of Ridley Scott's movie. No doubt, the success of Alien allowed The Thing to be made. However, the twist offered by Carpenter's movie is that this alien creature is able to assume the form of any other organism, so from a dramatic point of view it offers the suspense of never knowing which members of the crew are human and which have been infected by the monster. This fact alone helps underscore the tension and heighten the relationships between the characters, adding a nice mystery element to the story. It's the rare movie of this genre that gives its actors something to do other than running around screaming.
The Thing was released at the tail end of the late '70's and early 80's sci-fi movie boom and was lost in the shuffle, actually being released the same month as Blade Runner and E.T. At the time of it's release it was criticized for its excessive gore and disgusting special effects. It is one of those movies that actually found its legs on the subsequent home video market, which was barely existent when it was first released. The movie has spawned a number of comic book sequels as well as a video game.
The Thing is actually a remake of a fifities sci-fi movie, The Thing From Another World, which in turn was loosely based on the novella "Who Goes There?" written in the '30's by John W. Campbell, which seems to have borrowed the Antarctic setting and themes from "At The Mountains of Madness" by H. P. Lovecraft. Carpenter's remake actually stays closer to the plot of the novella, and restores the movie's idea that the creature can assume anyone's shape or identity. It also seems to have inspired the first season X-Files episode "Ice."
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:
The Thing is a seriously gory and disgusting movie but the effects are groundbreaking and imaginative and push the envelope of pre-digital effects. You don't really see effects this imaginative until T2 is released in 1991. I can even say that for a movie released in 1982 there are a few shots that DONT look dated today, which is pretty good for a movie that relies on stop-motion and animatronics.
The monster is only recognizable as a monster when it is in midtransformation, when it is a mismatched collection of tentacles and bizarre flowery appendages, with human and animal parts randomly thrown in. Sadly, one never gets to see the alien's true form which would have been cool at the finale. Perhaps it doesn't have one.
MONSTERS FEATURED:
"The Thing" in various forms.
DVD AVAILABILITY:
Collector's Edition released in 1998 with an 80 minute documentary, commentary from Carpenter and Russell and deleted scenes.
There is also a Blu-Ray which I haven't yet seen.
SEQUELS:
None, but there have been rumors over the last five years or so about a sequel/prequel/remake. Right now, it looks likely to be a prequel set in the Norwegian base.
SEE ALSO:
Alien (1979), The Fly (1986), The X-Files "Ice" 1993
TRAILER:
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