The Thing

M

mountainhare

Banned
Banned
I watched this movie last night, and thought it was bloody fantastic. Great directing, great acting, great script, and a very tense atmosphere was created. The special effects were pretty good for 1982, as well.

'The Thing' isn't actually that well known in Australia. I've asked quite a few people if they have heard of it, and they are like :confused:

Has anyone here seen 'The Thing'? How do you think it compares to other horror movies? Was it good for its time? How does it hold up in regards to recent horror films?

To be honest, 'The Thing' seemed very similar to 'Alien', both in the atmosphere created, and the music. Common derivatives, perhaps?
 
Err, The Thing is a remake of an old B&W film from the fifties, which was IMO a much better telling and not so gratuitously gory.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044121/
Alien sprang as an idea from the "beachball" alien in Dark Star, although the beachball had a slightly more comedic effect. :D
 
The 1982 version is quite exceptional. I watched the original version from the fifties and, while good in its own right, the '82 one was a great update. Seriously perhaps the only good Carpenter movie out there that's re-watchable. It's an incredibly intense, claustro- & xenophobic paranoid delight! It is exceptionally gory, but damn if it doesn't have one of the best endings to a movie I've ever seen.

The other thing is that there are no women in the movie ever. Not that I'm mysoginistic, but that takes one of the cliche 'damsel-in-distress' potential plotlines completely out. It's an entire movie about guys mistrustring each other and trying to figure out who's who in the Antarctic zoo! And who knew that Wilford Brimley was such a creep?
 
It's the most horrible film I've ever seen. I got severy traumatised by watching it when it came out, was only 12 then. Had to hide behind pillows when the spiderhead started running...and the dog....the dog....I was never the same.
 
Good movie.
I think the only other John Carpenter movie I like is Big Trouble in Little China
 
Good one !

I saw the remake before the original, but in spite of the updated "gestalt" or whatever, it still made for interesting fare.
Some sick-o effects, like the "spider-head" mentioned, but it wasn't yet the age wherein effects carry a film (IMHO, anyway), and these added to the overall feeling of "what in hell is going on here?!?!?!" rather than attempting to compensate for crappy performances by the cast.
 
Based on a short story called "Who Goes There?" by John Campbell.

Excellent film. The scene where he takes blood and slices open everyone's thumbs was the creepiest thing about it, for me.
 
This is the only film where I was really, and I mean *really* scared.
Usually, I am not much affected by horror films -- but this one affected me terribly.
I actually went and got my cat and held him close as I watched that film.
But it always helps me to see a horror film, however awful, to the end.
 
I remember seeing "The Thing" back in 82' as well and yes I agree, it is way ahead of its time as far as special effects go. I think it stars Kirk Russell. I remember the first time I saw it, my father pointed out that it was a remake of an old 50's movie as pragmathen has mentioned and that it had no females in the movie. I believe the original starred James Arnez, but I may be wrongon both accounts. The fact that it has no females is also interesting. It takes the sexual conflict out of the plot and forces the audience to consontrate soley on the fear factor and the mystery of it. It also keeps you guessing and on the edge of your seat. I can't ever remember seeing any other movie that did not have females in it. There is "Escape From Alcatraz", but it did have a female or two. Very little parts though. Still it didn't have to depend on the sexual intend of it which makes it pretty cool IMO.
 
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