The Thing

Genre: Survival Horror

What do you get when you combine Kurt Russell in a frosty beard, a detached head that grows legs and runs around, and a spoonful of Wilford Brimley? You’ve got yourself a horror classic, my nerdy friends.

John Carpenter’s The Thing is one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Correction. It’s one of my favorite movies of all time. No qualifiers necessary. This movie is BAD ASS! I remember watching this with my dad when I was fairly young and impressionable. It left an indelible mark on me, punctuated by gruesome effects and a desolate, helpless location. Set in the remote Antarctic, The Thing follows a research team who discovers some, er, thing that starts to infect and destroy the crew one by one in horrific manners.

The genius of the movie is its approach to The Thing. No one’s quite sure what it is, if they’re infected, and what the effects will be. If provoked, the Thing will defend itself no matter what. If it takes over a human, it’s almost like an earthworm. It can survive in pieces or as a whole, so it reacts differently to each unique situation. Sometimes the head will detach from the body. Sometimes the head will split in half and grow teeth so it can munch on someone’s face.

As great as the effects are in The Thing, what sets it apart is the interaction of the crew, and the growing paranoia among them. Since no one knows who’s infected, it’s every man for himself. There’s a psychological game at play for each character, and part of the fun as a viewer is trying to figure out who will reveal themselves as The Thing. The other thing that sets it apart is its ending, which is memorable in its refusal to cop out. No false hope here, folks. If you’ve never seen The Thing, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

Must-See Moment: In an attempt to determine which crew member is The Thing, Kurt Russell draws blood from each person and jabs it with a hot wire. It’s a tense scene with clever misdirection about who’s infected. When the climax hits, it’s unexpected and quickly escalates to a horrific end for two crew members.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Film, Horror Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.