The Thing (1982) Review (Favourite Films Series)

Tagline: Man is the warmest place to hide.

The Thing (1982) Review (Favourite Films Series)

 

The Thing first drew my attention because of its concept and the brief glimpses I had seen of the special effects (an alien creature that perfectly mimics other creatures and the effects were practical effects, but it was also very extreme and unique and horrific). That’s all I knew about The Thing going into it, but as it began, I felt this sense of unease. The music starts so simple, with just a thumping beat. The score is by Ennio Morricone, which I later learned was unique, because director John Carpenter typically does his own music for the movies he directs. Carpenter rose to fame as a horror director and composer with the original Halloween in 1978, and in Halloween the movie that’s on TV is the original The Thing From Another World, which was a major source of inspiration for Carpenter. I like when directors who were heavily inspired by a past film get a chance to take a stab at their own version of it, because they bring a unique sense of personal meaning to their new take. The Thing is a great example of this. It’s quite different from The Thing From Another World, but many argue The Thing is not only superior to the original, it’s one of the best horror films of the 1980’s.

So as I said, right from the beginning the music is unnerving. It starts out like a strange heartbeat trying to imitate a human heartbeat, and it seems like that was an intentional choice, because the concept behind the creature in The Thing is it imitates other organisms perfectly, making it undetectable until it explodes into a furious, gory monstrosity, but I’m getting ahead of myself. It starts out simple. A Siberian Husky is running across the snowy Antarctic landscape, being chased by a helicopter. The Husky gets to Outpost 31, where we meet the cast of characters. These guys are led by MacCready (Mac), played by Kurt Russell, who is as good as ever. All of the characters are believable and unique, and it never feels like a collection of stereotypes who are just there to be killed by the creature.

Prior to the first time the creature is revealed, there’s nothing outstanding about the way the movie looks or is presented. The characters are given just enough time to be shown doing their own thing before the horror begins, and it’s all shot in a straight forward manner. When the creature is revealed, it’s truly shocking and original, and from that moment on, the tension doesn’t let up. What will often happen in a sci-fi/horror film of this nature is the monster-free scenes will drag, and that’s usually because the characters are boring or the actors aren’t that great, or both. Not only is the cast of The Thing great, the characters are great, too, and there’s something unique about the concept of the creature that solves the issue of being dull when it isn’t on-screen. Anyone could be the monster in disguise, so there is constant tension, and the paranoia the characters experience is harrowing, but in a different way from the visceral thrill of the gory kills.

Is The Thing really one of the best horror movie remakes? Well, yes and no. It’s not really a remake of the original The Thing From Another World so much as it’s a re-adaptation of the John W. Campbell novella “Who Goes There?” The general storylines of both films are similar, but it’s akin to another 80’s horror remake of a 50’s sci-fi film: The Fly (more on that one later this month). The Fly took the same idea from the original (guy builds teleportation unit and gets accidentally combined with a fly), but switched it up with the details and characters and leaned into the body horror of it all, which makes the ideas play out in very different ways.

John Carpenter’s The Thing wasn’t a huge success when it first came out. Critics didn’t like it upon release, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is often blamed for its initial failure, because the family-friendly Spielberg alien flick was more appealing in 1982. In the years since, The Thing has been reappraised as a horror classic. It has certainly grown on me in the years since I first saw it. The first time I reacted in much the same way many critics did: the horror was so blatant and gruesome it was truly scary but not that enjoyable—yet there was something fascinating about the concept and execution that brought me back to it, prompted me to share it with friends, and now I find it enjoyable to watch again and dig into in new ways each time.