Double-posting from the dedicated thread, just because...
The snowy mountain landscapes of Antarctica look tranquil enough at first glance. When the chillingly minimalist throb of Ennio Morricone's music kicks in, however, we know that things are about to get real.
A lone dog and a Norwegian helicopter arrive at a remote American research facility, and the claustrophobic setting soon becomes a blood-drenched battleground by way of a shape-shifting creature that is able to take on the form and the genetic structure of any organism that it touches. The rough-and-tumble men of this station become increasingly distrustful of one another in the midst of their isolation from the rest of the world as the extraterrestrial entity preys on them one by one.
John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece,
The Thing, is one of my all-time favorite horror movies, and it has captured my imagination since I first saw it during my childhood. Despite its intensely gory makeup effects, which amazed its cult following in the days before computer-generated images, I believe that it is a good film for younger viewers to see, because of the fascinating mystery-style process of deduction and elimination that the characters must follow to ensure their survival. MacReady, a bearded helicopter pilot whose combination of cynical burnout and courageous resilience is conveyed perfectly by Kurt Russell, is hardly a stuffy intellectual type, nor are the rest of the unfortunate blue-collar-style researchers, who seem to spend all of their time alternating between pool table matches, ping-pong games, and viewings of videotaped game shows, but there is nonetheless a refined brilliance at play here as we watch them come to terms with their terrifying new reality.
High marks go all around to the ensemble cast, namely Wilford Brimley as Dr. Blair (
“I'm all better now.”), T.K. Carter as Nauls (
“Five minutes is enough to put a man over down here.”), David Clennon as Palmer (
“You gotta be f**kin' kidding.”), Keith David as Childs (
“I just cannot believe any of this voodoo bullsh*t”), Richard Dysart as Dr. Copper (
“They're not Swedish, Mac. They're Norwegian.”), and, of course, Donald Moffat as Garry (
“I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS F**KING COUCH!”).
John Carpenter, who was hot off the heels of one of the best streaks in horror/drive-in cinema with
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976),
Halloween (1978),
Someone's Watching Me (1978),
The Fog (1980), and
Escape from New York (1981), delivers a faithful adaptation of the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. source novella,
Who Goes There?, that includes several respectful homages to the its first screen adaptation,
The Thing from Another World (1951), but nonetheless makes this story all his own. Rarely in horror cinema have we seen such a balanced blend of Hitchcock-style suspense, unbearably tense paranoia, and garishly visceral bloodshed. The handing over of the music reins to Morricone was a serendipitous development through and through, but even Morricone's iconic score seems to take cues from Carpenter's synth-based work for the themes of
Assault on Precinct 13 and
Halloween.
The foreshadowing in
The Thing is superb. We've got the haunting score, we've got the genuine sense of isolation established as the radio controller asserts that he is not picking up any signals, we've got the grisly frozen carnage at the devastated Norwegian research station, and we've even got Blair's comically-antiquated computer simulation of a contamination scenario at the hands of the titular alien villain. Suspense and horrific premonition only carry viewers so far, though, and this film really kicks into high gear when we realize that the destination is going to be just as bleakly grotesque as the journey of past hints has led us to believe. This movie's pinnacle moment, a sequence where MacReady is conducting blood tests on the remaining humans to determine who has been infected by the Thing, makes me want to curl up in a fetal position on the floor of my living room every time I see it, although I have watched it dozens of times in my life.
The conclusion of this film is pitch perfect. I love the explosively adrenalized action showdown, complete with a cheer-worthy expletive. More importantly, though, I love the subdued aftermath, with two exhausted characters who are calmly resigned to their icy fates.
If you do not love John Carpenter's
The Thing, then you cannot roll with me. This is a movie that I have held close to my heart through HBO showings, edited-for-television network airings, VHS tapes, DVDs, and multiple Blu-ray transfer upgrades. Whenever a new home video of this film promises better picture quality, I sigh to myself, realizing that I'm going to have to buy this film yet again, then I buy it, then I watch it, and then I fall in love with it all over again.
The 4K scan from the latest Scream Factory steelbook is a home run across the board in my book.
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