...total and complete isolation...
...unable to trust anyone and having no way to escape.
This is the main draw of a movie like The Thing. Now, it's time for me to praise the cinematic genius that is John Carpenter. You may recall, last year, me talking about Rob Zombie's unashamed raping of one of his best works, but now you can actually read me ranting about a good movie he's associated with. He actually didn't write this one, just directed it, but his talent in bringing the printed words of a script to life shines through here beautifully.
The story is one of, as I said in the blurb above, isolation and of paranoia. A group of Americans in the Antarctic come across the remains of a Norwegian research station, finding bodies both burned and twisted by...something, though they really can't say what. And, in the beginning, they think nothing of taking on an adorable little husky that the few remaining Norwegians seemed to be chasing down...
...soon, things take a turn for the worse. The creature begins to assimilate members of the research team and starts to assimilate or otherwise incapacitate them. After the team discovers a flying saucer found by the Norwegians, they discover the titular Thing is trying to escape...whether to leave the Earth or leave the Antarctic is unknown. After some calculations, however, they do know that if the Thing manages to escape the cold of the Antarctic, that it will assimilate the world in a matter of years.
So it soon becomes the world's deadliest game of ten little Indians as the members of the group find that they cannot trust one another, they have only a few improvised weapons (namely flamethrowers - which explains where "kill it with fire" came from), and they can't count on any outside help due to equipment failures caused by a storm. Will helicopter pilot MacReady (Kurt Russell) be able to discern who is who and save the day? Or will the Thing manage to find a way to escape to the mainland and assimilate humanity?
Nothing in the film ever seems too cheesy, either. It's dated by the technology, but that doesn't take away from it, it's just a product of its time. That being said, the acting is sublime. Along with Kurt Russell there are several other acting talents, such as Wilford Brimley and Keith David (y'know, the guy who voiced Goliath in Gargoyles). The music is good too, and this is one of the notable instances where John Carpenter did not actually score his own film.
No, they got Ennio Morricone for that. You know, the composer who scored The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly? Yeah. That guy.
The special effects are also of note. Practical effects are the name of the game here, and The Thing does that better than many. What you see of the creature is utterly horrific and gory, and all of it done by practical effects (including the Thing-dog, created by the Stan Winston) which makes it all the more impressive.
The Thing is an utterly magnificent film and, as I said before, its themes of isolation, mistrust, and paranoia. Can you imagine something scarier than a creature wearing the face of a friend and that could, at any moment, transform into a hideous abomination and swallow you whole? Or, worse, could infect you with a single drop of blood, just mixing in a few of its cells with your own and taking over your body entirely to make you a part of its consciousness?
I'll just keep myself tied to the couch until we find out...
The Thing is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Universal Pictures.
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