The Thing has been a movie that I've heard about in numerous shows talking about horror films and cornerstones for special effects. The level of special effects, especially for the early 80s, is beyond the scope of normal. They went above and beyond with this film and they continue to talk about it nearly 40 years later It really pushed the boundaries of what they were doing at the time in terms of realism and extreme horror. Extreme in the sense that it pushed everyone's minds into a different place beyond what was normal. Nowadays, we may not consider this extreme, but for the time that it came out, this was pushing boundaries and the technology of the day to create something new. I know Kurt Russell has a major role in this film, but I don't know who else is in it with him. The story is about a shape shifting creature that begins to take over an isolated group of people in an extremely cold region. I'm not sure where and I don't know what the group is there for, but I think it may have something to do with some kind of alien creature because it's far less likely that it's something that's been around Earth for long. Since I don't have much more to go on, I'll watch the movie and see how it goes!
This is a pretty awesome movie. It layers on suspense, suspicion and horror so perfectly that you can't help but be riveted to find out who else has already been compromised. I'm so glad that I watched this one because it's one I hadn't shown much interest in beforehand, but now I know how much I've been missing. It's truly a masterpiece. The acting was superb and I was blown away to recognize one of the faces that was in this. I recognized Wilford Brimley's voice, but barely recognized his face. It's so different seeing him without a mustache! Kurt Russell was his usual epic self with his massive, epic mane. Then there was Keith David, playing Childs, and I recognized him but couldn't place him right away. He's younger than the roles I knew him in, especially from the Riddick series. The role suited him perfectly. Each of the characters seemed to play off the other personalities incredibly well and you could really feel where people would have tension between them and which ones would be friends. It didn't feel forced to fit the narrative. That's one of the things I like most about films from the 80s. They felt more believable because of the characters being well rounded and realistic. This film delivers good characters, entertaining dialogue, suspense, suspicion and horror that pulls you in and doesn't let go until the final credits.
I honestly wasn't expecting "The Thing" to be seen so frequently in this film. Usually films like this would let your suspicion build and then only have a few scenes at the end where you see "it" and it would be intense, but brief. I loved that they didn't shy away from the daunting task of creating each of the forms that this creature goes through throughout the film. It was an epic feat for them to do so many special effects on such a grand scale and have it hold up in film nearly 40 years later. The varying forms it takes while merging all of the DNA it's absorbed is truly horrifying. It's one of those things the ancient civilizations used to talk about as being beyond human comprehension. Having that many forms in one structure defies all logic and reasoning, so it's hard for a human mind to comprehend it all. They truly found a way to merge the forms to make it look every bit as terrifying as you would expect.
I was right about my assumption that it was an alien lifeform, but I didn't realize that it was something that had crashed on earth thousands of years prior to being found. That was a crazy revelation. It landed in Antarctica and was found by a Norwegian crew who discovered the terrifying nature of it and tried to destroy their entire camp in an effort to wipe it from the earth before it had a chance to spread to the rest of the world. The "Thing" escapes and that's how it finds the American crew stationed down there. It's interesting to think that if there were no humans exploring that area, it would have stayed dormant for much longer, maybe never thawing out to take over new forms. As the creature starts spreading to different places in the station, each person starts to suspect one another since it could take on the form of any person there. They find out that the Norwegians weren't so crazy to set fire to everything because they needed to contain it from spreading to the rest of the world. It's something that could completely take over the entire world in a short amount of time. With everything we've gone through the past year and coming to terms with the ways that contagions can spread, this movie feels even more surreal because this "Thing" is almost like a virus infecting those around it. It's just far more gruesome and deadly. You lose yourself completely to it.
This film masters the art of using suspicion to create suspense that leaves you on the edge of your seat during the entire film. You start off feeling confused because why would a helicopter follow a single dog and shoot at it? Why are they wasting bullets on a single dog? This doesn't make any sense when you first see it. Once the dog starts showing signs of intelligence in the form of observation, you start understanding that there might have been a reason that they were shooting at the dog. When they put the dog in with the other dogs, though, that's when you really know something is up. It is far too contemplative in that moment and you just know something is about to go terribly wrong and John Carpenter doesn't disappoint. The level of special effects in this scene are epic. I didn't think that they'd get right down to business in this film and show you the creature within the first 30 minutes! Man, was I there for it! Once that first scene hits you, there isn't much letting up. Everyone starts getting suspicious of each other and who might be compromised, so I found myself trying to see if there were any giveaways, but I couldn't spot any. The people you think might be aren't and the people you don't even pay attention to are. You are left at the end of the film praying that they really did succeed and wipe out the remains of the Thing, but it's a question they don't answer. It makes a great segue for a sequel, though, which I believe they made. I think I'll have to watch it sometime soon.
This is definitely a movie that will be working it's way into my regular rotation because I truly enjoyed it that much. If you haven't seen it yet, trust me! Get to it! You won't be disappointed. My next movie will be The Fly with Jeff Goldblum. I haven't found it free to watch on anything and I don't have time to wait for it to get returned to the library, so it looks like I'll get to rent it from Amazon. Stay tuned!
For more movie love, check out my other blog, "You're Watching That Again?!"
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