Mountain FogRETROSPECT: THE THING (1982)
March 17th 2009 09:50
In 1982 – barely two weeks after the release of the comforting extra terrestrial fantasies of ET – cinema goers had their views of life beyond earth shaken like a biscuit box with the appearance in theatres of The Thing. Taut storytelling rendered against a claustrophobic atmosphere combined with some of the most outrageous creature effects ever conceived delivered a gut punch to audience members, leaving John Carpenter’s creation to become one of the most celebrated horror movies ever.
Set in and around an American research station deep in the Antarctic tundra, the movie opens in ominous style as a Siberian husky flees across the icy landscape. In pursuit are two men in a helicopter. The desperate husky ducks, dives and scampers as it is fired upon from above, before eventually finding its way into the American base. Even as the dog finds shelter at the station, the helicopter lands and the two men continue shooting at the dog. One of the men trips with a grenade, obliterating both himself and the helicopter, while the other is shot by Garry (Donald Moffat), the station commander of the American base.
After discovering that the dead men are Norwegians from a neighbouring base, American helicopter pilot MacReady (Kurt Russell) and camp doctor Copper (Richard Dysart) fly off to find their camp, discovering a strange scene of total devastation. The base is in ruins, and the only occupant is a man frozen to a chair, while outside there's the burned remains of something vaguely humanoid. In a separate room, Copper and MacReady find a massive block of ice from which something has been recently cut. That night at the American base, the husky changes into an alien life form that murders the dogs in its pen, and the crew quickly learn that the creature has the ability to morph into anything it has had contact with. As winter sets in and contact with the outside world is lost the men begin to fight a brutal and losing battle against the Thing, never knowing if one of their own dwindling number is the alien in disguise.
The Thing’s abject terror comes as a result of the careful combination of a number of high quality elements. Carpenter had a very generous prep time for the film so he and fellow screenwriter Bill Lancaster took great care to produce a quality script. While many critics at the time took the film as a remake of Howard Hawks’ The Thing From Another World (1951), Carpenter and Lancaster actually eschewed that work, instead going back to the original source material, a 1938 science fiction novella called Who Goes There? The two screenwriters were fascinated by the shape-shifting nature of the creature in the novella and the smothering claustrophobia that the story elicited in its reader. It’s those elements that the script of The Thing captures best as the men, already suffering cabin fever through the suffocating early winter conditions, constantly battle against the atrophy brought on by their own paranoia. Their demoralised, lackadaisical and generally withdrawn nature when the audience picks them up plays brilliantly in making it impossible to guess whom the Thing might have taken over when everything goes south.
Carpenter, as director, takes these elements and runs with them, teaming up with acclaimed cinematographer Dean Cundey to great effect. Carpenter knows how important a pay-off is and he and Cundey make every one count with electrifying chaos. Of special note are two scenes in the middle of the film, one a defibrillation attempt gone wrong and the other an excruciatingly drawn out blood test, where the crew try to determine which one of them is the Thing. The blood test scene in particular is fantastic; perhaps in the top ten ever put to celluloid: tension is slowly ratcheted as each member is tested in turn, and when things go wrong the terror and mayhem is complete as the crew realise the folly of a particular aspect of their plan. It’s such a brilliant scene and with exasperated hands on your head you’ll also chuckle at its audacity.
MacReady (Kurt Russell) with an unpleasant discovery at the Norwegian station.
Of course, some would perhaps say that as great as Carpenter is, he’s not the real star of The Thing. That award could possibly go to Rob Bottin, the brilliant young creature effects guru who teamed-up with storyboarder Michael Ploog to bring to life perhaps the most disgracefully frightening monsters ever conceived. Bottin – who is yet to turn 50 – worked seven days a week for over a year to see that the creature effects were as realistic as possible. And the results were eye-popping: Faces melting, chests developing monsterly teeth and heads either splitting open or pulling themselves from their own torsos. It’s amazing stuff, trumping modern CGI for its visceral nature.
And everything is brought to life on screen by a brilliant cast of character actors. Russell – still trying to shake off his Disney years – is fantastic as the grizzled antihero of MaCready, his physicality matched only by Keith David as the ice cool Childs. Wilford Brimley provides a great turn as Blair, a scientist who goes nuts when he realises the hopelessness of the camp’s situation, while Donald Moffat plays it perfectly as Garry, a man who, the more he tries to convince the others that he’s human, the more he seems not himself.
Desperate end game: Nauls (T.K. Carter), MacReady and Garry (Donald Moffat) talk tactics.
Of course, this being a John Carpenter film, things end on a downbeat but ultimately satisfying note, the surviving men resigned to the fact that to destroy the alien, they may well have to destroy themselves. It’s a fabulous finale to a classic modern horror film, where the audience have been taken on a two-hour terror trip around the snowed-in station, an Antarctic horror house. The Thing really is a prized piece of brilliance, and should be picked up and devoured by any movie geek who hasn’t yet had the chance to see it. Just make sure you turn the lights on and have a few episodes of Happy Days to watch afterward.
Check out the excellent trailer for The Thing below:
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Comment by MVD
Carpenter swung and missed a few times, but "The Thing" is a true testament to the horror genre, and the (almost lost) psychological backbone which should always be in accompaniment.
Now excuse me while I catch up with Fonz and Richie.
Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
...ah, "The Thing"... I had never seen it until Bryn from Horrorphile yelped at me to go watch it. Incredible! The blood scene! The spaceship! What a concept and flawless execution!
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
As for special effects, I also despair at the CGI takeover of Hollywood. If you think how quickly creature effects and animatronics advanced throughout the 80s it makes you shudder at the kind of stuff they could have been pulling off today. Instead, the majority of it has been thrown aside. A good friend of mine summed it up beautifully when he said that the old creature effects were more convincing and frightening because they just looked more 'wet.'
Think about a film like I Am Legend: Flawed as it was with regards to the whole concept, it would have been far more frightening if they'd let somebody like Bottin go crazy on the vampires. Anyway...
Yeah Cib, it's all down to the execution. I didn't mention the paintings with the spaceship but they are awesome also. And the blood scene is just unbelievable. The guys all tied to the couch together trying to to get loose as all hell goes down around them. It's hilarious, but in a good way, and at the end, when it's all over and you can't believe what you just saw, there's that amazing moment of release after they test Garry and his classic line, '"I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS F---ING COUCH!" Gold.
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I love this movie. Always have, always will. Big Fan of Carpenter, although I don't like everything he's done.
Rob Bottin is a legend. Don't get me started on CGI ...
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight