The Thing

Movie Name: The Thing
Year of Release: 1982
Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur, T.K. Carter, David Clennon, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, Norbert Weisser, Larry Franco
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 8
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Synopsis and Review:

Following the double punch of "The Fog" and "Escape from New York", films that further cemented his reputation, director John Carpenter tackled his first big budget endeavor with "The Thing", which had originally been envisioned as a Tobe Hooper project. The film is a remake of the Christian Nyby feature from 1951, "The Thing from Another World" . It focuses its narrative on a group of researchers in Antarctica whose existence is disrupted when a helicopter from a nearby Norwegian research station comes by in pursuit of a dog that has escaped their base. When that situation escalates, and after researching the source of their behavior, they encounter that other base pretty much destroyed. While inspecting what's left, they come across the remains of a strange creature, which they bring back to their home base to inspect with further detail. They come to the conclusion that is an alien life form. They eventually figure out that this alien creature can in fact assimilate into other life forms, including humans. The team also realizes that the creature is trying to survive by killing and replicating the members of the research team. They have to be strategic about detecting who is in fact human, and who has been in fact replaced, while also preventing the creature from going into hibernation again or spreading throughout the planet.

This remake of the "The Thing from Another World", which in itself also influenced Ridley Scott's "Alien", marries perfectly well with the thematic universe and focus of director John Carpenter. There are traces in the narrative that are quite similar to what he managed to depict and convey on "Assault on Precinct 13" and even on "Escape from New York", both films where there's a sense of ongoing claustrophobia (even if in the case of New York, that closed off space was the island of Manhattan), where the opposing forces seem inescapable, but somehow the resourceful hero manages to triumph, thanks to his resourcefulness and ingenuity. "The Thing" starts progressively unveiling its menace and threat, much like his previous (and following) films, though in this particular case, the visceral aspect of the creature, also produces much of the horror that the researching team experiences. Whereas "Alien" builds its environment out of shadows and suggestion, "The Thing" showcases its menace a bit more openly, but loses none of its impact due to the graphical representation of the creature. It's a film that also allows for each character to be broadly represented, much like a B-movie, establishing traits, behaviors and the dynamics of the group. The cast is uniformly great, with Kurt Russell leading the group, but with great support from Keith David, Wilford Brimley and Donald Moffat, to name but a few. The cinematography from Dean Cundey is fantastic, as is the score from the iconic Ennio Morricone, with special highlight also going to the visual effects from Rob Bottin. A great film always worth revisiting from one of the most distinctive voices in American cinema.