john carpenter’s the thing
Continuing my streak of reviewing the spookier side of cinema during Halloween’s approach, I think it’s high time I brought attention to what my 20-hours-ago self, blankets drawn up to my chin and eyes glued to my TV, deemed one of the greatest horror films of all time.
In fairness, I had seen this movie once before, many years ago. I remembered only the locations and general feel of the film, as well as the ending, and had forgotten the minutia. However, in a twist of fate, my inexperience with the film elevated this rewatch to even more tense heights than if I was going in completely blind. This film is best rewatched years after an initial viewing, since knowledge of the atmosphere, setting and general outline of the finale causes mystery and excitement during every scene wondering how the film is going to get there. I didn't remember who was going to be “the last guy” sitting alongside Kurt Russell at the end, so I eagerly combed through the environments and surroundings for every little detail and glared down every single well-written character like a hawk, waiting to see who would strike.
Although this version eclipsed it in popularity, John Carpenter’s The Thing is indeed a remake of a 1950s film called The Thing From Another World. The original film, though I did enjoy it, is little more than an hour-and-something time killer where the Thing bursts into a room every couple scenes to be lit on fire and then exit. But what it did not adapt from the novella it was based on was the shapeshifting element, with the creature being essentially a very strong and tall man. John Carpenter’s film, bringing back this power of the Thing for a new adaptation, instantly justifies its existence and does nothing but add on to the original instead of taking away. When you hear people complain about modern Hollywood and their desire to remake without changing or adding anything substantial to the original film, this is what they’re talking about.
The isolated, snowy atmosphere of the freezing arctic elevated the sense of dread, leaving the audience to feel as if the characters were truly lost and alone. Between this, The Shining, and The Empire Strikes Back, “80s movies in the snow" is now becoming one of my favorite “genres”.
Like The Shining before it, The Thing poses countless questions it leads the audience to answer on their own, unfolding into a haunting labyrinth of ideas. Was the blood test a legitimate deduction method, or did the Thing just get spooked? Did McReady fill the bottle of alcohol at the end with kerosene so as to test the creature’s reaction to its taste? Was the creature ever really intent on world domination, or was it simply trying to get home, attempting a stealthy approach with the Americans after being attacked by the Norweigans? Is the film an allegory for the AIDS epidemic of the 80s? And, of course, the iconic question the entire film hinges upon- is McReady an imitation at the end, or is Childs, or both, or neither? The film’s halfway approach to its explanation of the alien’s origins answers just the right questions while still shrouding the ones better left unanswered in secrecy.
My all time favorite film YouTuber, MrSundayMovies, posed an opinion on his recent The Thing video that I thought was interesting and am adopting: that the film has a perfect amount of lore relayed regarding the Thing, not even necessarily through exposition, but just by watching the creature itself- and that any more or less information would either dilute the mystery and create more needless questions, or disengage the audience from the end result. Definitely make sure to check out his videos.
John Carpenter, the director, rose to fame initially because of his work as a film composer, normally scoring his own films such as Halloween. However, for the Thing, he handed the baton over to Ennio Morricone, one of the most legendary film composers of all time, who turned in a score to rival its genre’s highest competitors. The synthwave reminded me of Brad Fiedel on Terminator, but the dread and terror oozing from it elevated the atmosphere-oriented soundtrack to bone chilling levels. It’s not a score easily listened to independently, as its job is to set a mood, but God damn, does it set the mood tremendously well.
But on a higher pedestal than its score, The Thing prides itself on another key aspect of its presentation: its unbelievable and groundbreaking special effects courtesy of Rob Bottin. The creature’s design itself is gasp-inducing, as the concept of morphing with a plethora of otherwise-unseen alien creatures to create a kind of mash-together design is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The special effects showcase is grotesque, so the art is not for everyone (especially animal lovers), but there was not one sequence of the film I didn’t feel like everything was real- Rob Bottin’s handcrafting was seamless. The Thing is scary and gross, and hugely influential- films didn’t look like this in 1982, and they don’t look like them now, either.
I love every single character in this movie. None of them are unintelligent, none of them are lazy audience surrogates in disbelief of what’s going on, or asking annoying questions, and none of them feel unrealistic or cobbled together. The team immediately catches on to what’s happening, and there's (graciously) little to no beating around the bush or, “uh, what's going on? An alien? Yeah right!” The action and the terror just start with a bang so that these unusually competent characters can showcase their distrust of one another and begin to slowly break apart the camaraderie. Kurt Russell's and Keith David’s characters are set as foils early on to lead to as much animosity between them as possible as the plot unfolds, naturally setting up the mystifying and satisfying ending- a terrific idea.
If I had one minor nitpick, it would be the over usage of flamethrowers as a weapon. There is a lot of fire in this movie, something it shares with the original. It would have been really cool to see a variety of different weapons and traps being used against the creature. It undermines the final theatrical faceoff against the creature, as it simply goes down to a flamethrower without much of a fight, something it previously faced many times in the film already. (“That can’t be it, so he’s gonna come back to life for one more scare and– oh, that was it. That was it?”) Something like the Terminator being crushed under a press in a factory, or Arnold Schwarzenegger using mud to mask his heat signature from the Predator was more in line with the final creative one-last-push that I was envisioning. However, since the emphasis on the finale is on the characters anyway, this is a very minor gripe.
My brain is still reeling from the comprehensive, dread-inducing, creative, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride I had the pleasure of experiencing last night. It set the mood, asked questions, showcased mind-boggling effects and sent shivers down spines in less than two hours. John Carpenter’s The Thing is quite simply one of the most tense and incredible film experiences I’ve ever had, and has been a must-see staple of the horror genre for forty legendary years. This conquest of cinema can’t be missed.
