Movie Review - The Thing

When it comes to remakes, I have a tendency to be an all-or-nothing fan. Fortunately for me, when it comes to The Thing, I haven't seen the original and so my views on the 1982 John Carpenter creation, I don't have a reference point.

As far as sci-fi creature flics go, this movie should be near or at the top of movies in your collection. Kurt Russell stars in this movie which features a research team in Antarctica suddenly having to deal with an alien species that takes over a host and adapts itself to those characteristics.

One interesting part of this movie is that in 1982 there was no kind of CG to work with and all of the special effects are practical. To me anyway, there is a real appreciation to movie people that are actually creating what is on the screen. Add to that a type of special effect that hasn't been seen in a movie since this one and basically you have one of the great horror movies of our time.

I think what I like about this movie is the levels that it brings. On the outset, you have a horror movie and you can take everything you see at face value. There is an interesting aspect of isolation in this movie, the protagonists are about as far from help as a person can be.

Wilford Brimley is absolutely tremendous in this movie and I do wish he had more time to shine on camera. For someone who grew up watching him on oatmeal comercials, I don't think I ever did truly appreciate how strong of an actor he is.

Also, after listening to one of the audio commentaries, Carpenter brought up an interesting parallel for how this movie related to the world with regards to the AIDS outbreak in the early 1980s. At that time there suddenly became all of these people with AIDS and suddenly these people started dying. The thing with AIDS is you couldn't (can't) just look at someone and say, "Yep, they have AIDS." The same thing with this movie. You can't tell who the infected people are just by looking at them. So (in the movie and at that time in the world) you have paranoia about who is safe and who isn't, and it is interesting to place yourself in that kind of setting.

Finally, without giving too much away, I loved the ending. It didn't exactly follow the prototypical Hollywood ending and I appreciated a break from the norm.

The movie is rated R and the special effects certainly warrant a bit of caution for anyone who does not like that kind of thing. That said, this movie is tremendous and one of my personal favorites. Rock solid 4.5 stars out of 5.