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The Thing was directed by John Carpenter, and released in 1982. The movie follows a group of American researchers at their base in Antarctica, when they begin to encounter strange and terrifying “things.” These creatures can assume the appearance of anyone or anything, and the group must use all of their wits to survive.
The Thing is one of my all time favorite movies, and might be my all time favorite horror movie. And I honestly have no real complaints or criticisms about it whatsoever. To me this is a perfect, flawless movie, and your enjoyment of it will mostly come down to your personal preference.
Technically speaking the film is again, near perfect. The pacing is great, and the movie never feels slow or boring. The writing is also top tier, with each character avoiding standard horror cliches. The characters feel like real people that make realistic decisions, and this makes it easy to become invested in them. This works along with the personality of each individual. The writing also does a great job explaining the rules for how these creatures work.
This film has some of the best practical effects I’ve ever seen. And despite being nearly 40 years old I still think they hold up beautifully. The effects for the “things” in this movie are still miles ahead of the effects for other movie monsters being released today. These effects are easily one of the biggest highlights of the film and are part of what make it such a classic. I’d put the practical effects in The Thing on the same level as those from the original Star Wars trilogy, if not even higher.
Another highlight of, The Thing, is the incredible score by Ennio Morricone. It perfectly sets the tone and atmosphere, and creates a sense of dreadful mystery right from the get go. The tone and atmosphere of this movie is unmatched, you feel the isolation, the fear, and the paranoia of each character as their situation gets worse and worse. The setting mixed with this score creates a unique experience that’s unlike any I’ve felt in a movie.
The Thing is filled with great acting, with each character being played perfectly for their role. Kurt Russell in particular, is phenomenal as MacReady.
My only criticisms of this movie come down to, quite literally, a few moments. Some scenes in the movie have weird audio, that is likely due to its age, but I think this is only in maybe 2 scenes near the beginning. There are also a few weird cuts here and there, but I think they’re funny and add an edge of dark humor to the film, and I think it works well. There are also a few background shots that haven’t aged amazingly, but these are the smallest of nitpicks and don’t take away from the movie at all.
I think the story of this movie, the mystery, the threat of the things hunting the crew, and the ambiguity of certain plot points are amazing. I could go on about how perfect this movie is forever. It is, in my opinion, a perfect horror movie. I think it illustrates its themes of distrust, and the fear of the unknown perfectly and creates a movie that is still very creepy, and incredibly enjoyable today.
Objective Score:
9.5/10
Personal Score:
10/10
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The Thing has been a movie that I’ve been meaning to check out for a long time, and thankfully, it recently popped up on Netflix. So, here’s my review!
The Thing has been touted as one of, if not the best remake of all time. It definitely does live up to that title. It does help that there aren’t many great ones, but still… The Thing is really great.
I think the thing everyone talks about is the practical effects and Rob Bottin’s work throughout the film. For something that was made 39 years ago, it still manages to be gut-wrenching and scary. While computer generated effects have come a long way, nothing beats the tangibility of these practical effects. This, combined with Ennio Morricone’s haunting score creates a very chilling atmosphere where these characters inhabit. The funny thing about Morricone’s score here is that it feels a lot like Carpenter’s scores. Just with a little twist.
Carpenter takes on the directing role here and he does a really great job. I think it would be really easy for a normal director to force things to move along, but Carpenter does his thing by letting events unravel. Therefore building the suspense for these rare, and grandiose payoffs. And for a film that takes its time in almost every scene, it always keeps you on your toes. I was always questioning “who is ‘The Thing’ now”, or “who’s next”.
I think the only scene that could’ve needed some chopping is probably the opening part with the Norwegians. The way it was executed felt kind of awkward. I think it helped to establish our main players, but it felt too direct, and lacked some subtlety that the rest of the movie (including the ending) has in bunches. My only other complaint is that as the deeper we get into the cast, the more similar these characters get. Some of them share a lot of the same attributes or looks. So sometimes I would lose track and mix up certain characters as it went along.
Now these may just be me, but other than these minor issues, I don’t really have much to say. The Thing is a phenomenal film that is the benchmark for practical effects. It’s a great horror/thriller, that with a few tweaks, would be perfect. Almost everyone involved is iconic in their own right; and them coming together creates a hodgepodge of legendary proportions. I feel like this would be a great theatre going experience. Great sound design, great score, great everything.
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The film follows a group of scientists in Antarctica. They're researching there when a dog and Norwegians turn up at the camp. The Norwegians chased the dog to the American base in an attempt to kill the dog. The Americans save and keep the dog. But later learn that the dog has an alien in it, and it can shape-shift into other things.
I am currently writing and posting this while I'm in quarantine. I rewatched this movie about a week ago, and it was very interesting to watch it again but in a post-2020 world. Of course, I'm talking about the pandemic that basically shut down the world in March 2020, and is currently still happening today.
In "The Thing" the trouble all starts when some people from different countries show trying to kill a dog that has an Alien viruss in it. And that virus has fully mutated and has taken out an entire foreign base camp, and has come to another countries base camp. Sound pretty familiar?
The scientist who is studying the dog and the alien that is in it grows increasingly worried as he finds out about it more and more. He finds out that the alien can be transferred or spread from living thing to living thing. And he even estimates the time it could take to infect the whole world.
The scientist who studied the dog and the alien then locks himself away from everyone else because he doesn't know if he's become infected or if anyone else has become infected. Eventually, the whole film is about distrust and being wary about the people around you. Everyone towards the end starts questioning each other if they're safe or infected and start testing each other to get them to prove that they're OK.
I was at a pretty big gathering a couple of weeks ago, and I was worried about the virus spreading to me or my family, and I know it was gonna spread, and well, I'm in quarantine now.
I might be reaching with this one, because I don't think this was the original intention with this film, but I think the parallels between the movie and our world today are interesting. Obviously they are two completely different situations, but I think the behaviors are similar.
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