The Thing (1982)
Starring Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David
Directed by John Carpenter
Rating: ★★★★½
Rating: ★★★★½
I love this film. It’s so tense and at the same time disgusting. It’s kind of like an Agatha Christie mystery but with tons of gore and a horrific alien. I have always thought that you can tell how amazing a film is by how good it is when you re-watch it, and how well it holds up since it was released. I have seen this film several times, and each time, I always feel the suspense and paranoia and horror that the characters in the film feel, even though I know what is going to happen! And that is how you know The Thing is a 5 star film- because it is so well made in every single way.
The story is about a group of researchers working in Antarctica, who are supposedly attacked by a group of Norwegian scientists intent on killing a dog. But what they don’t know is that the dog holds a secret- a terrifying extra-terrestrial secret, and soon, one by one, the researchers begin to be picked off, as the alien assimilates itself with a living host, and the survivors have no idea who is still human, and who is a monster...
John Carpenter ratchets up the shocks and the gore, which come as cathartic episodes to break the increasing tension. The puppetry is truly disturbing- body horror at its best (or worst, depending on how you see it). Personally, I always think that the first ‘transformation’ sequence involving the dog and its intestines is the nastiest and most visceral, but I’m sure that no one who has seen this movie can forget the infamous deliberator sequence in all its horrific glory.
Kurt Russell is such a bad-ass in this movie; it’s hard not to root for him. He had already worked with Carpenter before as the ultimate bad-ass Snake Plissken in Escape From New York, and would do again in it’s sequel Escape From L.A.. They also worked together in the awfully forgettable Big Trouble In Little China. But here both men are at their best, and Carpenter proves why he is one of the founding fathers of horror movies- he sure knows how to disturb the crap out of you!
It’s funny to think that this film was a commercial and critical failure when it was released back in 1982. It’s dark, scary and bleak, and maybe audiences weren’t really prepared for that. European audiences generally prefer darker, unhappy ending movies generally, so its no surprise that I can fully appreciate it, but it is good to know that it found a new life on video and DVD, as well as word of mouth. Too often people tell you something is good when it isn’t, but The Thing is a case when it really has to be seen to believed, but it is definitely not for the faint of heart.
Sadly, the movie is getting a Hollywood remake or revamp or reboot, whatever you want to call it, since everyone has now recognised what a great film it is, and so instead of coming up with an original idea, Hollywood will just rip one off and probably make it much worse. They will probably rely on CGI to do the alien sequences, which is a shame, because even though the alien in this film looks like a puppet, it still is real in the sense that it is an actually entity rather something false and computer generated. It also shocks you because you think ‘how they hell did they do that and make it look so good?’ (I’m referring back to the deliberator scene again).
So instead of paying to see a probably inferior remake (even though it does star Mary Elizabeth Winstead), just watch the original instead! If you’ve never seen it before it’s worth it, and if you have seen it before, then just revel in its awesomeness.
.jpg)
0 Yorumlar