Antarctica, a cold and desolate place, which is only visited by researchers and the occasional tourist. In other words a perfect setting for a science fiction/horror movie as there isn’t any place you can hide, except for the camp you are living in. You also know that you will have to solve all your issues yourself as there is nobody coming soon to rescue you. Add to that, that you actually don’t know if the people around you are still human and you have the perfect ingredients for a tense situation where you don’t know who you can trust.
The setup of the story is pure genius. Norwegian researchers are chasing a dog, who they are trying to shoot and they follow it to an American research site. Because the difference in language the Norwegians can’t explain what is going on and the Americans are forced to defend themselves. They survive, but it doesn’t take long before strange things start happening in their camp. Something seems to be taking control of people.
The team needs to find out who is still human, but since they are constantly sabotaged they become more and more paranoid, which only adds to the tension. This movie offers non-stop excitement and the practical effects are among the best (much better actually compared to CGI stuff). Only criticism I have is that at the beginning not enough time is spent on getting to know the characters. There were moments where I had no idea who someone was. If this would have been done better I would have probably given this a perfect 10.
John Carpenter directed the movie and decided to work with Kurt Russell again after they did Escape from New York together. The Thing offers a very good story, gory effects and an ending which can be discussed for years. Enough reasons to love this film and it’s no surprise that this movie is ranked in the IMDB top 250.
Currently a prequel to the Thing is in production. Although I’m not expecting it to be as good as this movie, I’m sure I will be watching it with the hope that it will be.
Score: 9
Nice review. I totally agree with you regards to the special effects; they look so much better gooey, than CGI stuff. Great film; love it!
I prefer those effects above CGI most of the time. Recently watched a documentary about pratical effects and there was a small part about this movie in it as well.
John Carpenter is a demigod of 80’s horror, and The Thing is one of my favorites. Great review!
Thanks. I’m not too familiar with his work (seen a couple of his movies, but not a lot). Which other movies of his are worth checking out?
If you like horror, I recommend In The Mouth of Madness and the original Halloween.
I’m not a big fan of horror. It’s actually the only movie genre I hardly watch because I’m not a big fan of scaring myself for no reason 🙂
In that case, Escape from New York is a decent action film, though its sequel Escape from L. A. borders on self-parody. In the realm of sci fi, there’s They Live, a nice paranoid mind control story.
I’ve watched it recently. I must say I expected more. You’re right about characters’ identities. There were a lot of people there and to distinguish them they should’ve given them some very special features.
What did you expect from the film? I didn’t have any, although I know it was one of those movies a lot of people seem to love.