The Thing (1982)
Directed by John Carpenter
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
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10 films that influenced The Thing
What critics say influenced The Thing
Unreasonably tense, with a key scene in particular still nigh unwatchable for me, The Thing is as good a remake in theme as it is in glorious Technicolor function--as good, in fact, as Philip Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (a movie to which it pays homage in a pretty creepy moment), and in much the same way.
Anyway, the late 1970s and early 80s saw two excellent remakes of iconic 1950s' horror films: Philip Kaufman's 1978 "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and Carpenter's 1982 revision of the old Howard Hawks production, "The Thing From Another World."
It borrows from some recent hits: the isolated location of Alien (1979) and some of the unease and mistrust of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), but Carpenter plunks his movie square in the Reagan era, and beyond.
To this day, Kaufman’s remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is one of the best remakes ever done, right up there with John Carpenter’s “The Thing.”
Because this material has been done before, and better, especially in the original "The Thing" and in " Alien ," there's no need to see this version unless you are interested in what the Thing might look like while starting from anonymous greasy organs extruding giant crab legs and transmuting itself into a dog.
It borrows from some recent hits: the isolated location of Alien (1979) and some of the unease and mistrust of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), but Carpenter plunks his movie square in the Reagan era, and beyond.
Carpenter avoids the subtle suspense of the earlier version - all the guessing and paranoia and wonder - in favour of a mindlessly macho monster mash which looks and feels just like an ineptly plotted remake of Alien, right down to the chest-bursting scene.
When Ridley Scott made “Alien,” for instance, he filled his tight spaces with faces that could effectively meander back and forth from serious observation and lighthearted anecdotes; in the grind of the routine, a little variety passes the time.
Besides, as a wizened vet of 14, I had survived The Fly , Aliens, RoboCop , and Hellbound: Hellraiser II at the Union Square 6 (also gone), so what horrors could these musty relics hold for me?
Thus, the film becomes an Agatha Christie "And Then There Were None" or "Ten Little Indians" kind of story, with the monster killing off each of the humans one by one and duplicating them in turn.
…(earlier turned into the 1951 classic The Thing from Another World), this version finds Kurt Russell delivering a suitably gruff performance as MacReady, just one of the 12 men stationed at an Antarctic research facility that's soon under attack by a shape-shifting alien entity.
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Thus, the film becomes an Agatha Christie "And Then There Were None" or "Ten Little Indians" kind of story, with the monster killing off each of the humans one by one and duplicating them in turn.
A semi-variation on Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" with an extraterrestrial twist, the film not only proves masterfully foreboding, but orchestrates a plot trajectory that fast spins delectably out of control.
And with The Thing, he went so far as to explicitly remake the Hawks production of The Thing from Another World of 1951, a film whose authorship is much, much, much too complicated to say something as blunt as "it was directed by Howard Hawks" or the opposite.
In 1982, he released a direct remake of a Hawks film, The Thing from Another World , although there's some dispute over whether Hawks directed that 1951 film (it bears all of his signature touches, but the credited director is Christian Nyby, Hawks' editor).
When it was released in 1982, John Carpenter's remake of Howard Hawks' 1951 science fiction classic The Thing from Another World spurred much debate about not only which film was more effective but whether Carpenter's version fit better into the science fiction or horror genre.
Anyway, the late 1970s and early 80s saw two excellent remakes of iconic 1950s' horror films: Philip Kaufman's 1978 "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and Carpenter's 1982 revision of the old Howard Hawks production, "The Thing From Another World."
Well, John Carpenter is an immensely talented film director who took a very good science fiction film called “The Thing from Another World” and turned it in to an amazing horror film called “The Thing.”
In re-adapting the John W Campbell story (Who Goes There?) already filmed so superbly in 1951 as The Thing from Another World, Carpenter provides a punchy enough action thriller as the men of a lonely Antarctic research team are menaced by a shape-changing alien from outer space.
It's no secret that Carpenter has spent most of his career in the shadow of Howard Hawks, cryptically re-making or pointedly reversing that director's Rio Bravo in, like, half of his movies.
For Carpenter's early feature Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), he loosely updated Hawks' Rio Bravo to an urban setting.
Why not let Luke Skywalker risk dying of hypothermia in an ice-cold, barren wasteland, after almost being torn apart and devoured by a wampa (imagine the creature from John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) half-protruding out of a polar bear)?
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And Carpenter's paranoid classic -- one of his best, easily up there with Halloween -- had to wait until video and cable, and finally a densely packed DVD, to get its full due.
Mr. Carpenter has demonstrated that he can make good, comparatively plain, old-fashioned scare movies (''Halloween'') and effective suspense thrillers (''Escape From New York''), but he seems to lose his own head when he combines two or more genres, as he did in ''The Fog'' and does again here.
(Clips from the black-and-white film also appear in Halloween .)
I believe that people fifty years from now will remember director John Carpenter for three popular works: "Halloween," "Escape from New York," and "The Thing."
What is persistent in “Halloween” and “Christine” and even “The Thing” – all early films – is that he finds the daily grind of human life to be the biggest catalyst for new horrific trends, and the slow reaction time of his characters are ultimately their downfall.
And while the local babysitters telephone their boyfriends and watch “The Thing” on television, he goes back into action.
Mr. Carpenter has demonstrated that he can make good, comparatively plain, old-fashioned scare movies (''Halloween'') and effective suspense thrillers (''Escape From New York''), but he seems to lose his own head when he combines two or more genres, as he did in ''The Fog'' and does again here.
Others will disagree and argue for "The Fog," "Starman," "Big Trouble in Little China," "Christine," "They Live," or others.
Carpenter's fourth feature as a director, "The Fog" was his first relative -- albeit honorable -- misfire; it's fairly unique as a 1980s horror movie, but it remains a lesser work in a directorial filmography that includes "Escape from New York," "The Thing," "They Live," "Big Trouble in Little China," even "Christine."
It has so much wonderful atmosphere and that amazing, inimitable music that can only be John Carpenter even when it's Ennio Morricone (See or rather listen to THE THING).
Of the first bunch of Carpenter films to be updatedincluding Assault On Precinct 13, Halloween, Escape From New York, and The Thing (itself a remake)the 1980 film The Fog has the most room for improvement.
(Bottin, of course, would reach a special effects pinnacle--arguably still unsurpassed and, in today's CGI-mad environment, possibly unsurpassable--with Carpenter in 1982's The Thing.)