31 DAYS OF HORROR: DAY #25 - JOHN CARPENTER'S THE THING

"Nobody trusts anybody now.  And we're all very tired..." - R.J. MacReady

The Thing, (1982), Directed by John Carpenter
Grade: A

I am probably going to anger lots of people by saying this, but this is probably my favorite John Carpenter movie.  Yes, I think it's better than Halloween.  While Halloween most certainly is an important film in its own right in the horror genre, The Thing succeeds every possible way in making terror into an anonymity.  The premise of the film is so simple, it could be very easy to turn the movie into an unintentional laughfest.  (SAW is a great example of this.)

Plot: Twelve people at a research outpost station in Antarctica discover a parasitic alien being that has the ability to kill any living thing and then copy it perfectly.  While this sounds much like a version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, the premise is handled very differently.

The main thing here (so to speak) that adds so much to the film is the snow, ice, and the cold.  It is a character in the film.  And Carpenter's camera that pans through the confined spaces and cramped quarters all add the deep, building terror.  Kurt Russell's R.J. MacReady leads the group head-on as one of our great "fed-up" actors, and delivers a performance of caliber and raw emotions.

 
What's great about the movie is that once the alien "thing" takes over, we're not sure who anyone is anymore.  I was halfway expecting "Who Are You?" to chime in at any minute over any given scene.  And also, Ennio Morricone's foreboding score fits so perfectly with the coldness and the dank interiors of the research station, that it almost feels like the music itself is stalking the characters.  The sound design of the outside wind, the rustling of plastic canopies over snow equipment, and even the moving air inside the rooms all make for incredible suspense.

Of course, this is a horror film, so once everything kicks into high gear, the blood and gore ensue.  Rob Bottin, the makeup artist, does an incredible job here.  It's hard to imagine how the creatures could have looked any other way, now with the advent of CGI (and this blogger has not seen the just-released prequel yet), but the creations that Bottin brings to the screen are just breathtaking and horrifying at the same time.

And who else do we have in the film but Mr. Quaker Oats himself, Wilford Brimley.  While his performance of Dr. Blair is subdued throughout most of the movie, once he discovers that the "Thing" can kill enough people to take over the world, he merges into a psychotic rage that would make any of his Liberty Medical commercials seem like pure normalcy.



The film ends on an ambiguous note, which might turn some viewers off, but after seeing what the characters have experienced and all the pieces have fallen into place, it does not seem like there could be any other ending possible.  (At least for it to be a satisfying one.)

When released in 1982, The Thing failed to find an audience and did poorly at the box office.  This was mostly due to the fact that another alien movie had been released that same summer, and was a smash hit, so therefore Carpenter's masterpiece got lost in the shuffle.

And Reason #32,788 for FUMoR to hate this waste of film.

No matter, Carpenter's vision is the vastly superior film, and that's someTHING I'll take to the grave with me.