The Thing (1982) - Universal Classic Revisited

Under-Appreciated on Release, This Gem Has Earned Classic Status.

May 20, 2009 Ian Terry

John Carpenter's benchmark SF fright-fest gets a theatrical re-release later this year. Now, thanks to a digital restoration, The Thing has never looked better.

It's hard to think it was a flop at first, but when The Thing first hit the theatres, audiences stayed away. Critics shrugged indifferently, citing more than a passing resemblance to previous hit space-horror Alien (1979).

On the surface, the critics had a point: both were effectively creature movies, where one by one, hapless crew-members end up on the menu. Both movies featured gross, imaginative effects and unpleasant concepts about people becoming host to an other-worldly life-form. In both films, the monster is really the star, as noted in their single-word titles. When you look at these stars as the subject, you see they are worlds apart.

The Story

The Thing starts with a chase. A Norwegian helicopter pursues a lone dog across frozen Antarctic wastes, ending up at Outpost #31, crewed by a dozen Americans. The Norwegians seem intent on killing the dog, but manage to off themselves instead. The dog moves in with the Americans, but when placed in kennels, we get the feeling those Norwegians had the right idea about putting it down.

This is where the groundbreaking work of Rob Bottin, visual effects supremo, kicks in. Watch in astonishment as the dog turns itself inside-out, blooming a flesh-petalled orchid. Before the eye has time to take it all in, the beast then sprouts tentacles, throbbing like exposed nerve-endings. As it transforms, the creature attacks the surrounding dogs caged in with it. The assembled crew watch with jaws agape as the audience screams 'kill it!' they do, with fire.

The plot moves at speed, taking us to the remnants of the Norwegian base camp, revelations in the ice (some stunning visual effects shots of a partially uncovered saucer), then back to the American base, just in time for the winter storm to kick in, severing the team from the rest of the world.

Studying the remains of the dog-thing, Dr. Blair (loveable, insane Wilford Brimley) cottons on to the creature - it's a shape-shifter, assuming the form of whatever it consumes. Once someone suggests that one (or more) of them might even be an alien copy, paranoia sets in and we get to play a is-he-or-isn't-he game, trying to figure out which one of them is a pod-person.

Direction and Performances

Carpenter shoots like he's riffing on Dario Argento movies from around that time - night scenes throb with neon primary shades, so that a distress flare becomes a magenta beacon against a royal blue night.

Add to the brew an Ennio Morricone score that clearly has John Carpenter's synth fingers all over it (a chilling one-note riff becomes a signature moment) and comparisons to Alien just don't hold up. The Thing is an entirely different beast.

Kurt Russell turns in another of his great anti-hero roles as helicopter pilot MacReady. We know he doesn't give a damn because when we first meet him, he pours a glass of malt into the drive bay of a very big green-screen chess computer once it gets him in a checkmate. "First goddamn week of winter," he grunts later that day. So he's broken his computer AND he's throwing his drink away? Isn't that supposed to last him?

We need the characters drawn in these broad strokes because there's twelve of them, they are all men and they all wear anoraks. Some have glasses, some have beards. Frankly, its a miracle Carpenter keeps all this together - some scenes require seven or eight of the cast to share screen time.

Stand-Out Scenes

There are a couple of set-piece moments that still have the power to astonish. One starts with a CPR heart massage and ends with a disembodied head escaping the scene by growing spider-legs and eyes on stalks; another is a beautifully drawn-out scene where one by one, blood samples are tested to see who might actually be 'it'.

Both are intense, gory scenes - but this is other-worldly gore, somehow: the latex and goop sheen of the prosthetics spurt green and yellow and crimson blood; when humans are mutilated, they quickly become assimilated, so what you think you see suddenly becomes something else.

Even so, The Thing isn't for the weak of stomach. Those willing to brave it will find a movie deserving of it's classic status, the high watermark for all creature movies.

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