Comments on: The Thing

By: RWA

RWA — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:17:20 +0000

Devil’s advocate here: I MUCH prefer the 1951 Hawks-Nyby classic, and I’m probably the only person left under the age of 40 to say so. Twice, I was convinced that 1982 film was better than I remembered due to fanboy ravings across the Internet, yet when I saw it again both times, I was disappointed. It DOES suffer from special effects overkill, and the camera lingers on them so long that you wonder more how they did it than anything else, I don’t give a damn about any of the characters (and I absolutely hated three of them, although that may have had more to do with the annoying performances of the actors), and the supposedly “memorable” ending comes across as more dumb and tacked-on than anything else to me. Only one scene genuinely frightened me and it had nothing to do with monsters, or gore, but was a classic Jacques Tourneur-ish piece of work. Unfortunately, the rest of the film failed to live up to the promise of that one scene.

By: keelsetter

keelsetter — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:58:26 +0000

Oh Dear God, yes… let us pray that Michael Bay, who has produced remakes for THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and the upcoming FRIDAY THE 13TH leaves THE THING alone. When I said that more can be good, I did not mean more attention-deficit-disorder editing (or narrative-order-disorder scriptwriting, for that matter).

By: filbuff63

filbuff63 — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:42:58 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly with all of the comments. Murr hit the nail on the head. it is a closer interpretation of Campbell’s “Who goes there”, as opposed to a total remake. there is ONE PARTICULAR reason i say this. In the ORIGINAL, the creature was seen as some kind of vegetable and wanted plasma to live. there was never a mention of shapeshifting or total takeover og the original. in this sense, it compares to “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. I was also glad that they left it as it lay. at one time, i understand, there was a rumor that they wanted a sequel to find out what happened to McReady and Childs. I think in this case, LESS IS MORE. the graphicness of the gore was right on track and in THAT sense MORE IS GOOD. let’s hope that someone doesn’t come along and try to remake it.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:44:05 +0000

I saw “The Thing” several times when it originally came out in theaters. I thought it was fantastic, and I still love watching it today. I wasn’t aware it was considered a failure when it was first released. I recently bought a more recent DVD version and really enjoyed the bonus cast and crew interviews from recent years. Like “Blade Runner,” another favorite of mine, it’s really great that the acclaim has grown over time.

By: SuzieQ

SuzieQ — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:39:54 +0000

Both films fall under the column headed “Perfection”. Being such a dog lover, the beginning of Carpenter’s film set me up to be horrified the whole way. Two of my favorites..

By: The Misanthrope

The Misanthrope — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:03:15 +0000

I love Carpenter’s The Thing. I’m so glad you touched on the score because that low bass pulse inspires so much dread in me every time I watch this film. The spider-head may be the scariest thing I have ever seen on film and the whipping tentacles coming out of the dog make me writhe in oogly discomfort. Great decision to leave the end with no resolution. “It wanted to be US!”

By: YancySkancy

YancySkancy — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:03:51 +0000

Not to take anything away from Stan Winston’s extraordinary career, but it’s my understanding that most of the f/x commonly attributed to Winston in The Thing were actually supervised by Rob Bottin. Winston’s credit on the film is something like “additional makeup effects.”

By: cicero grimes

cicero grimes — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:33:10 +0000

this is without question my favorite Carpenter,have seen it many times,but Ennio Moricone did the (great)score,and I think you may be giving Winston credit for Rob Bottins work.
Having said that,I’ll say this: GREATEST ENSEMBLE CAST EVER ASSEMBLED IN THIS GENRE.
“Is that a man in there?”

By: cicero grimes

cicero grimes — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:29:37 +0000

Not trying to be picky here,this is head-and -shoulders my favorite John Carpenter,but:
1: He did not do the score;

By: Murr

Murr — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:57:45 +0000

I agree with the whole positive tone generated above. I have to add that I felt John Carpenter’s effort gets an extra kudo simply for being much truer to the source material, John Campbell’s story “Who Goes There?”. Still not 100% true, but vastly closer to the suspense and paranoia of the story than “Thing from another World”.