Review of The Thing (1982) by Dillinger P — 26 Oct 2015

You know how everyone bitches and moans about remakes? Well... Here is a remake, arguably better than the original, unquestionably more popular and utterly essential to just about every single persons collection.

A group of researchers, isolated in Antarctica are one day disturbed by gun toting maniacs, hell bent on pulverizing a husky for reasons best kept to themselves. Confused by their behavior, the group head out to their predicted compound to find out what seems to have set the men off in such a frenzy, only to find everyone dead and their bodies burned.

Completely stumped by their findings, it soon becomes apparent that something isnt right and what appears to be an alien infection has infiltrated the base and some of the researchers, forcing the men into unease, where paranoia and death ensues.

The Thing, shines on every level imaginable, John Carpenter manages to take the frightening idea of alien invasion and twist it completely on its head, so much so, you may feel like David Cronenberg helped conceptualize the premise.

Alien invasion has always been a frightening concept, we as humans are shit scared and intrigued by the possibility of life from another world one day coming to earth to say hello, as with most films, especially leading up to The Thing, The Blob, The Day The Earth Stood Still, War Of The Worlds, Alien.

.. Aliens are usually portrayed as bizarre and other worldly creatures, vicious and intelligent, big eyed and ghostly. What John Carpenter does here is make the idea of alien life form, more sophisticated, unnerving and dare I say it, realistic, with the idea that alien life form comes as largely bacterial, infecting living hosts and reproducing with everything it meets, much like how germs themselves act.

So when you conceptualize it like that and infect a small group of men, cut off from the world, in a hostile environment, with nowhere to run, you can imagine just how under the skin the film can at points actually get.

Every man is suspect, their motives questionable, which makes for some brilliant viewing. Carpenters concept is sound and the set itself is majestic throughout, the world feels lived in and just on the edge of collapsing altogether.

Placing a brilliant cast of actors into this world, with Kurt Russell leading the team only strengthens the films credentials. In true Carpenter style, he builds the world from the bottom up, meaning that when the blood starts running, we care about everyone, were suspect, we are rooting for the teams survival, the fact that the film also contains some extremely memorable writing just happens to make this film endlessly quotable and unforgettable.

Rob Bottin also tries to outdo everyone and he almost succeeds with his fantastic make up and special effect work. The alien life is slimey and grotesque, body morphing humans into creepy and bizarre creations, from stomach mouths to spider heads, Bottin goes to town with some wild creations, which still looks utterly unique and brilliant in today's age of CGI nonsense.

Could possibly be one of the best films of all time, must own.