The Thing
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David
Reviewed by Brian M. Sammons
This is my favorite movie of all time. Scream Factory is one of my favorite Blu-ray companies of all time. So yeah, get this. It’s an amazing movie, with a ton of extras, looking better than it ever has before.
Peace, out.
*drops the mic and walks away*
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*pokes his head back in*
What, you’re still here? Why? It’s John Carpenter’s The Thing, a movie that, while it was largely overlooked upon its initial release, has since become lauded (and rightly so) as one of the best horror movies ever made. And it’s Scream Factory, who always puts out great discs and goes the extra mile. Do I really have to tell you more about this?
Fine, fine I will.
Just in case you’ve never heard of 1982’s The Thing, here’s a bit of history for you: John Carpenter’s film was a very loose remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic The Thing from Another World. The funny thing (ha ha) is that the latter film was a much more faithful adaption of the original story than the first film. That story would be the 1938 novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr.
In this movie, a group of Americans are about as isolated as you can get on Earth at a research station in the Antarctic. They have their monotony broken one day by a couple of “crazy Norwegians” in a helicopter chasing a sled dog across the snow, shooting and tossing grenades at it. After the nutty Vikings die and the Americans save the cute little doggie, they take their own chopper to the Norwegian camp to see what the hell is wrong with them, just before a big storm is set to roll in and isolate the base even more than it already is. At the other camp the Americans discover that all the Norwegians are dead, and through video logs they learn that they found not only a bona fide flying saucer buried in thousands of years of ice, but the spaceship’s pilot. They find the big (and now empty) block of ice that once held the alien, and outside the camp they come across some twisted, obviously inhuman thing, dead (hopefully) and all burnt up. Yeah, there was a reason the Norwegians were pretty adamant about killing that dog.
The thawed out alien is a shapeshifter, but in a twist that I always liked, it doesn’t go about it in the way you would first think. In most stories the monster would kill or eat someone and then take on their form. It would do this again and again, always becoming someone new, but always remaining a singular threat. Here the thing infects others, taking them over at a cellular level. In essence, it doesn’t become you — you become it. That means the threat can spread and multiply, and that ramps up the paranoia and fear. Now characters don’t just have to wonder which one of their friends is the alien, but how many of their friends are really monsters in disguise.
Let’s talk about that/those monsters. When it’s not running around in human guise, it’s wonderfully gooey, tentacled, amorphous, and indescribable. Yes, the only word that really seems appropriate for it is thing. But it’s not some mindless, slobbering beast, a big scary critter with one neat trick. No, this thing is impossibly old, has been to countless alien worlds, and is very smart. Not just clever in an predatory animal way, but in a scene often overlooked by many, the thing was actually building a new flying saucer so it could escape the arctic wastes to get to a populated area where its infection would spread like wildfire and become unstoppable. What’s more frightening than a horrible, un-killable monster that could be anyone? One that is much smarter than you.
This utterly alien and wonderfully unique monstrosity was brought to life through some of the best looking special makeup effects ever created. They are simply mind blowing in their complexity and ingenuity, and still, all these long years later, look spectacularly seamless. They are also miles better than the crappy video game looking CGI the recent remake/prequel from 2011 chose to use. I can think of no better example of doing something with skill, style, and love versus doing something slip-shot, in a rush, and for cheap than comparing the 1982 Thing with the 2011 one. But I’m about to slip into rant mode, so we had better move on quickly.
On to acting, directing and overall story. First, the actors — Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, and a half dozen or so other “hey I know that guy” players are all at the top of their game, playing things deadly serious and not phoning it in just because it’s a “silly monster movie.” I especially liked Kurt as the star of the show, helicopter pilot MacReady. I usually like Russell in almost anything he does (and certainly in all his team ups with director John Carpenter), but for me this is his best role. He’s tough yet not an indestructible action figure, he’s smart but more clever than bookish, he has an air of a natural yet reluctant leader to him, and all this is portrayed very well. While all the actors turn in solid performances, there’s a reason Kurt Russell is the star.
Another great thing about The Thing is the tone. I said before that the actors played things deadly serious, that’s because the story is deadly serious. There are only two real moments of levity in this otherwise relentlessly bleak movie, and because there are so few, they both work wonderfully. One comes when one of the men, after being part of a truly horrifying ordeal and helpless to do anything about it, professes rather loudly that he doesn’t want to spend all winter tied to a couch. The other is pure comedic gold and is one of the most memorable and best delivered deadpan lines ever. If you have seen this movie then you already know which one I’m talking about and that only proves just how good it is. So since you either already know where I’m going with this, or you haven’t seen the movie, I won’t say it here for fear of ruining the punch line.
Now, there is one school of thought that says horror and tension should be broken up in a movie by scenes of humor to give an almost roller coaster-like experience of highs and lows. Yes, sometimes that works very well, but The Thing does things very differently. Once the horror, tension, and paranoia starts, it never lets up. Instead of a roller coaster, the audience finds themselves on an icy slope in a locked car without breaks leading down to a cliff and a 1000 foot drop. Everyone knows that something bad is going to happen but there’s nothing they can do to avoid it, so they just have to sit back and enjoy the ride. Very few fright films take this approach anymore and that’s a shame, because when it works, like it does here, it really works.
All that, and I haven’t even mentioned how it’s the most wonderful example of Lovecraftian horror captured on screen — ever. But do I really need to say that? No, I didn’t think so. So on to the impressive list of extras Scream Factory have rounded up for this new Blu-ray release. They are so impressive that they require their own second disc to hold them all.
First there is an all new audio commentary with the director of cinematography, Dean Cundey. Then there is a classic, and amazingly fun and informative, commentary with director Carpenter and star Kurt Russel. Last but not least in the commentary department, there is another new one with the co-producer Stuart Cohen. Not enough for you? Well there also is a whole other cut to this film presented here, such as the network TV version, just in case you like your Thing without all the amazing effects and dirty words. Terror Takes Shape is a feature length (one hour and twenty-four minutes long) documentary about making the movie.
There are also a bunch of featurettes included in this bundle. “The Making of a Chilling Tale” is a five minute look at the past; “The Making of the Thing” is nine minutes of exactly what you think it is; “The Art of Mike Ploog” is a twelve minute look at the art that went into the movie’s storyboards and helped design the look of the various things in the film, and “Back into the Cold” is an eleven minute visit to the locations where the movie was shot.
Want more? Well there’s also a collection of vintage interviews and press shorts that were filmed waaaaaaaayyyyyy back in 1982. Keeping with that classic vibe, there is also a vintage product reel used for press and investors, a collection of vintage behind-the-scenes footage, a bunch of outtakes, and a collection of annotated production stills.
Do you like interviews? Well if so, this Blu-ray has got you covered. There is a nearly thirty minute interview/conversation between John Carpenter and fellow horror filmmaker, Mick Garris. “The Men of Outpost 31” gets many of the actors from the film together for a fifty-one minute discussion of the movie. There is an eleven minute talk with the editor, Todd Ramsay. “Behind the Chameleon” is a twenty-five minute group interview about the look of the movie, and so it talks with visual effects people, miniature designers, special make-up creators, stop motion animators, and cinematographers. There is a fifteen minute interview with the folks that did the sound design, and “Between the Lines” is a sixteen minute talk with author Alan Dean Foster who did the novelization of The Thing. Still want more? Well then trailers, teasers, TV spots, radio spots, and still galleries are also on here because why the hell not?
The Thing is an amazing movie. It is the rare perfect film for me where I wouldn’t change a thing. Ha, get it? Oh, never mind… The Thing routinely tops people’s list of Best Horror Movies of All Time, and for good reason. If you don’t already have this in your home movie library, then get it. If you already have a copy and love this movie as much as I do, then get this, as it is hands down the version to have. I cannot recommend this movie and this Blu-ray high enough. It is a mandatory get. So yeah, get it.
