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All Movie Info
Starring:
Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, T.K. Carter, Richard Masur, Keith David, Richard Dysart, David Clennon, Donald Moffat, Thomas G. Waites, Charles Hallahan, Norbert Weisser, Larry J. Franco, Nate Irwin
Directed By:
John Carpenter
Written By:
Bill Lancaster
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The Thing (1982)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
September 23rd, 2007
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John Carpenter's 'The Thing' is a remake of an old 1951 sci-fi movie, and is so much better one may be inclined to think he is watching something entirely different. This is Carpenter's best film outside of Halloween, and it is a greater accomplishment in terms of technical achievement, with awesomely gruesome and fiendishly creative special effects and an overwhelming sense of paranoia and isolation, as a group of scientists at a research outpost in Antarctica battle a parasitic creature from space that can take the form of whoever or whatever it possesses, producing a nearly flawless imitation. These men grow distrustful of one another, and are never sure who is still human, and extreme measures are taken in the name of self-defense, with flamethrowers and dynamite being used to vanquish any monstrous manifestations.
Thousands of miles from the rest of civilization, with freezing temperatures, and no means of escape, fear and desperation set in, a fight for survival ensues, then a fight just to keep the shapeshifting alien from putting itself into a cryogenic state so that its host's body can be found and transported back to the United States by the rescue team that will inevitably show up to investigate and check for survivors. The tension builds slowly and smartly, we see gross stuff (insectoid legs sprouting out of a severed head, a dog's face peeling open, a mouth inside of a man's stomach biting off another man's hands), but there is always a mystery as to what the creature really looks like, until the very end, and like the Predator, it poses for us briefly before slain by the hero, here played by Kurt Russell, in a wonderful performance. What an impressive creature it is. And what an extraordinary remake this is. Most remakes are worthy of scorn, they are clumsy, lazy, or just plain bad, but this is remarkable, and, as I mentioned earlier, considerably better than the original, though I suppose such a thing is open to debate. This is top-notch sci-fi horror.
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