When I was still in high school, I was starting to watch YouTube constantly, one video I saw was a parody video of Star Wars’ Admiral Ackbar saying his infamous line, “It’s a Trap,” at various movie scenes where that line fits in the most. One of those scenes involved a Doctor trying to defibrillate a man and then suddenly the man’s chest opens up like a giant mouth and bites off the Doctor’s arms, that scene was from a little film called The Thing and that scene succeeded in scaring the living daylights out of me that I vowed never to watch The Thing, and I mean ever, until nine years later as of July 5, 2019 as I saw that scene once again and wanted to see the entire film because of how much acclaim it gets from the horror fanatics, including James Rolfe of Cinemassacre. After finally watching it, not only did I love the film, but what I saw was something that has made me a full-fledged fan of the Horror genre. I’ve watched other horror films in the past like Alien, The Shining, David Cronenberg’s The Fly, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, the Evil Dead Trilogy, and the original Halloween, but John Carpenter’s The Thing has finally made me realize how much of an unknown impact that the horror genre has had throughout my life as being scared of particular things in the past has made me grow to love the genre.
For those that don’t know, John Carpenter’s The Thing was a 1982 remake of The Thing From Another World made in 1951. Rather than copy the 1951 classic, Carpenter decided to have his version of The Thing be closely tied to the original short story, “Who Goes There” written by John W. Campbell Jr. Carpenter assembled a crew that includes an original screenplay by Bill Lancaster, Cinematography by usual collaborator, Dean Cundey, a score composed of synth and orchestral elements by Ennio Morricone, and groundbreaking practical effects created by Rob Bottin and his extensive team. Actors include Kurt Russell, Keith David, and Wilford Brimley (Yes, the “DIABEETUS” guy). All the cast and crew came together and made a horror film that would be highly scrutinized by critics, fans of the original, and the general audience (due to E.T. The Extra Terrestrial having premiered a couple of weeks before The Thing) but would finally find it’s deserved audience through home video and would become a huge cult classic horror film. What makes this film so good is not just the great practical effects, not just the cast, but the overall tone and execution of the entire story. What John Carpenter succeeds in this film is to present the fictitious idea of dealing with an organism that looks, sounds, and mimics the human species through assimilation and that The Thing could be anyone that is shown within the twelve-men research team on U.S. Outpost 31.
Kurt Russell gives a performance that is the definition of Badass. As R.J. MacReady, Russell invokes a character that will do anything to survive and doesn’t care how things turn out in the end, he goes so far to prove throughout the film that he is not The Thing and even kills a few of his coworkers when they try to take him out throughout the film. The best way I can describe R.J. MacReady is a male version of Ellen Ripley but with more of a cocky attitude and a will to sacrifice others in order to survive his encounter with the enemy. While Kurt Russell was known as a pretty boy actor in most of early films, this is the film in my opinion that made to where Kurt Russell could be taken very seriously in his career.
The other notable actor in this film is Wilford Brimley as Dr. Blair. Blair is where the exposition of The Thing comes from as he deduces how the organism works and secretly deduces that it could assimilate the entire earth if it gets out of Antarctica. Through Brimley’s performance and edited takes, you see him quietly go insane as he is the one that feels the most fear out of The Thing and tries to protect himself from The Thing by causing chaos and cutting off the entire camp from the world, which ends up getting him locked up in a tool shed whether he was already assimilated before or after he’s locked up is not shown. It just amazes me how much of Wilford Brimley’s expressions throughout the film manage to tell me how scared he is of The Thing, and honestly, this is my favorite role of his.
That’s another element I love about The Thing, you don’t really see the organism assimilate the other team members (except for the scenes with Bennings and the Kennel dogs) as it makes for great building of tension and fear. It’s all done through the pitch perfect direction of John Carpenter, so pitch perfect that I consider this to be my favorite Carpenter film.
This film has one of my favorite uses for practical effects and animatronics, and all of it is because of Rob Bottin. The designs of The Thing are very gory and organic that it almost makes me feel that this creature could exist today. Every use for the practical effects is timed perfectly, from the Kennel-Thing scene to the Chest Defibrillation scene with Charles Hallahan (may he rest in peace), the blood test scene that reveals the Palmer-Thing, and the reveal of the Blair-Thing at the very end. Really, it was a sign of great things to come with practical effects/animatronics and it was only in the year of 1982. I find it fascinating that The Thing was a huge failure at the box-office and with critics, most critics were very brutal with the film, even going as far as saying that it will be one of the most hated films of all time, which is 100% ridiculous. Because of home video, The Thing finally found its audience many years later and is considered a cult classic for the way it pioneered animatronics for film in general. Another thing worth mentioning, Stan Winston was brought in during one point of working on the Kennel-Thing as Rob Bottin worked himself to where he finally needed a break, two years later, Stan Winston would go on to design the animatronics and make-up effects for James Cameron’s The Terminator. The point I’m trying to make here is that I consider the Kennel-Thing scene to be a good film reel for Stan Winston.
In the end, The Thing made me conquer one of biggest fears of all time, and that was watching this film. John Carpenter’s The Thing is a must see for all horror fanatics and lovers of practical effects. It uses two of the biggest fears of the human race to create a creature that is not only scary, but also iconic. It’s just a really damn good film that should never be overlooked by film buffs like me. Trust me, it’s a huge winner in my book for great horror/sci-fi films.
9.5 out of 10
