Review of The Thing (1982) by Kiara Z — 26 Oct 2012

I hadn't seen this film in over twenty years, so i've been tempted to acquiesce to it's description as a "classic" of the horror genre. However a re-encounter on SNAM, sans commercials and even with the benefit of commentary on the website, still did not yield a greater appreciation of it's supposed merits. While the special effects that accompanied the various incarnations of the monster were very well done, coming just three years after those in Ridley Scott's "Alien", they did not yield the shock value they might have absent the inevitable comparison. Character development, especially given the genre and an ensemble cast, is understandably next to non-existent, but the reliance on stereotypes was a bit disappointing. However, it could be said that now some thirty years later, those very stereotypes are what they are because of the somewhat simplistic characterizations in films like this.

Quick off the mark with the introductory helicopter chase of a lone stray dog/wolf by the neighbouring Norwegian Antarctic team in a helicopter, a chase that ends in catastrophe for the Norwegians and leaves our American team shocked and bewildered, Carpenter's pacing of the lead up to the revelation of the horror that underlies the reasons for the initial airborne chase is agreeably slow, but still predictable. This set-up of the underlying premise of stealthy mutation of the monster by assimilation of it's hosts and their replication is upon re-watching decades later too close to the cliches of the genre to provide much edge-of-the-seat suspense, but proceeds without much interruption. Perhaps it is best that the story line is not cluttered with nuances like character development , for one by one, the characters are "fleshed out' by the monster as it seeks to keep one step ahead of the increasingly terrified team's efforts to first figure out it's modus operandi, then find ways of thwarting it.

Essentially a reworking of that classic suspense/horror theme of who-can-you-trust paranoia, complete with the isolated setting (an Antarctic scientific base instead of an isolated country manor), with stock characters (yes, I know, they're to be expected), and a monster that has a unique capacity to elude capture, it does give this theme its due, even if the effort falls short of being quite as chilling as the continent it is set in. Maybe because it is a reworking of these themes, or maybe because it was a re-watch for me with fully two decades of other fresher and more subtle offerings dealing with the same under my belt, I wasn't as enthralled by it as its "classic" status suggested to me I should be. But then again, maybe that is why it is considered by many to be a classic; it provides a reference point for us to examine what has come along since, much of which, given the genre, has been a degradation into pure formulaic schlock, but some of which has shone by comparison. Which is surely one of the prime purposes of horror; to shine light into our sub-conscious fears.

Verdict: Not "The Ultimate In Alien Terror" that its movie poster tag line tells us it is, but serviceable enough with quite a few nice touches to make it decent guilty-pleasure viewing, preferably with equally guilty-pleasure helpings of popcorn.