This is my reward for making it through another horror movie marathon.
I won’t be coy here, John Carpenter’s The Thing is easily one of the five best horror films of all time. What’s amazing is that it was a critical and commercial flop when it came out in 1982. That completely boggles my mind… this is such a masterclass in suspense building, a meditation on paranoia that should have resonated especially strongly in Cold War America, and the special effects look flippin’incredible in 2016! What were audiences missing? It’s possible that it was compared unfavorably to 1979’s Alien, another sure fire top-five horror film about an extraterrestrial stalker. The films are so different, though, it hardly seems fair to dock The Thing for failing to live up to Ridley Scott’s masterpiece. Whatever the reason, the movie has since gone on to receive the recognition it deserves in the horror pantheon, enough so that you probably don’t need my endorsement to push you to watch it. Sometimes, though, I do these things for me, and I really wanted to watch a great movie to close out the season this year.
The film is set at a research facility in Antarctica, at the start of winter. Carpenter has some heavy lifting to do to introduce us to the cast efficiently, giving everyone a distinct character without dragging this into an hour long first act. To that end he succeeds admirably. Every line and interaction feels natural, hinting at long-formed relationships, and providing crucial shorthand to the audience. The 10-12 men at the facility are not all scientists, but include pilots, security, a doctor, a cook. In many ways, they are a microcosm of society (well, with one major exception – the movie fails the Bechdel test miserably, featuring zero female characters). The threat is introduced immediately, although the camp doesn’t necessarily realize it right away. Willard Brimley is the first person to piece together the magnitude of the danger in their midst: An alien organism that propagates by digesting its victims and creating perfect dopplegangers of them. The threat is both immediate and apocalyptic, as the creature would spread like a virtually undetectable virus if it could make it to a heavily populated area. Kurt Russell’s MacReady, the station’s helicopter pilot, quickly assumes leadership of the team amidst an environment rapidly deteriorating trust, working to flush out the alien. Russell is iconic in the role, the type of reticent anti-hero that such a masculine film demands.
One thing that makes the story so captivating is that the characters all react logically. I was watching with my wife, who had not seen it before, and she would occasionally say something addressing the crew’s actions like “Aren’t they going to burn that?” or “Shouldn’t they go test the guy locked in the shed?”, only to have the characters immediately fulfill her expected course of action. Not to say that none of the characters make bad decisions, but they only do so due to a lack of information or the fog of paranoia clouding their thoughts. They never do anything simply because the plot demands it. Once they are backbiting and consumed by paranoia, it is all the more impactful because the characters have adhered to an internal logic throughout the film.
In the interest of balance, there are a couple of points that are not perfect about The Thing. There is an early scene of exposition delivered via computer simulation that is pretty groan-worthy. Back in the 80’s, computers were treated as sort of magical boxes, where writers envisioned you could do pretty much anything with them. The exposition was necessary, but would have been much better handled through conversation. There is also a late-movie death scene that seems like its from an entirely different movie and doesn’t hold to any of the logic of the creature that had been established so far. These are just nits, really, and the brilliance of the film as a whole makes them completely forgivable.
So, if you’ve managed to make it this far without watching The Thing, you need to remedy that as soon as possible. You’ll be treated to a great script, excellent acting, the impossibly cool Kurt Russell in the lead and some of the most creative creature effects ever committed to film. You’ll also get the blood test scene, which is on my short list for greatest movie scenes of all time, regardless of genre. If you have seen it, hell, watch it again. Have a great Halloween everyone, see you next year.
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