Must See Movie Of The Week #11: The Thing (1982) - Kurt Russell, Keith David. Directed by John Carpenter. Antarctica 1982. An American research team are camped on the ice field and a Norwegian helicopter lands nearby, shooting at a fleeing dog. The helicopter explodes, the Norwegians are killed and the dog survives. The US team set off to the Norwegian camp to investigate. The Norwegian scientists found something buried under the ice. Something... Up until this feature, John Carpenter was famous for directing small, low budget movies which were successful both with audiences and financially for the small studios that supported his early work. This was his first big studio movie (released by Universal) and based on the novel Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr. Unbelievably it was not successful on its theatrical release as audiences just could not get what they watching and they hated the non-Hollywood ending (its not a happy one). Carpenter resisted studio pressure to shoot an alternative ending (thankfully). Like Blade Runner (released in the same year), it was certainly a movie ahead of its time and it is now considered to be an absolute classic of its genre having built up a huge appreciative fan base and gathered critical acclaim thanks to the home video market. The story is compelling and entirely plausible, the cinematography is dark and brilliant use of the steadicam makes you feel immersed in the movie. The effects are incredible for the most part practical (there was no CGI back then) and still look effective today. Carpenter regular and make up genius Rob Bottin created all the creature effects from scratch save one - the dog sequence which was an uncredited addition by the legendary Stan Winston as a favour to Bottin. The success of a movie can be marked by what follows it. US TV series The X Files paid homage to Carpenters masterpiece with its season 1 episode Ice and in 2011, director Matthijs Van Heijningen made a pre-quel movie under the same name to explain what happened to the Norwegian team who made the initial discovery, itself a bold and chilling movie that is worth a second look (but not as good as this classic original). It is a companion piece to this movie and even according to the director it could not be classed as a remake (Heijningen clearly a fan of the original). Available on Blu-Ray and DVD with a feature length making of documentary included, The Thing is well worth rediscovering. Universal must love this movie now as they created one of the best DVD releases for the film. I love it and never get bored watching it again and again. If you want to know how to make a masterpiece of suspense and nerve shredding tension then look no further than John Carpenter. This is how it should be done. Man is the warmest place to hide...
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 20:33:23 +0000
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