The Thing by John Carpenter

[Hordakfan]

Simply the best sci-fi horror combo next to Alien and a true masteripece of both genres.

John Carpenter has crafted an exciting and scary film with great performances by Keith David, Kurt Russell, Richard Dystart, Wilford Brimley and more in an all male cast, a nice chilling (literally) atmosphere and awesome special effects by Stan Winston and Rob Bottin.

I first saw this movie on video when i was 5 when my brother rented it and i thought it was creepy as hell but cool and became one of my favorite movies of all time. The film didn't do well at the box-office due to being in the same time as ET but it found an audience on video, cable, laserdisc, DVD and blu-ray over the years with critical reappraisal as it's one of the best films of both genres.

It's his best movie with Halloween being second.

 

[Dugath]

This and the Grudge (ya I know) are the only two movies I will not watch alone in the dark.

By the way.. watched it when you were 5 ? That is kind of messed up

 

[Roose Bolton]

Greatest horror film of all time and one of the best endings of all time.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

One of, if not THE best horror movie of all time, and it still stands up today as a superb piece of film-making, one of my favourite movies ever, and probably just pips Alien as my personal favourite ever.

 

[Teelie]

It's a great movie and it was done with practical effects. I liked the sequelprequel/remake too but not as much and the CG in it was much more noticable. In fact I recently rewatched both of these a few days ago before Netflix pulled the original off streaming.

 

[chintai80]

this too is probably one of my favorite horror movies.
the prequel was good too, but not a classic like carpenter's 1982 one.
it's a good companion piece though.

 

[Teelie]

I just realized I called it a sequel, not prequel. For shame.

 

[Octoberist]

the prequels was misguided. why repeat the same beats..when it's a prequel. It didn't do enough to create it's own identity.

 

[The Joker]

Along with Halloween it's Carpenter's best movie.

 

[chintai80]

yea, the prequel didn't really add much to the story.
it's just kinda cool to see a monster messing stuff up, and the little details like how the axe end up on the wall, and how what ended up where when the american team went to the norwegian base.

and seeing mary elizabeth winstead is always good. though they never resolve what happens to her character in the end.

one of my friends said he liked the prequel more, because he thinks the cgi effects look better than the practical effects...i do feel like i should de-friend him now though. lol.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

Nah bro, just kill em

 

[Octoberist]

Along with Halloween it's Carpenter's best movie.

You're forgetting Jack Burton.

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA!

 

[chintai80]

Nah bro, just kill em

but if i did that, i'd have no friends to gauge my tastes in movies with. my better tastes in movies...

and yea...big trouble in little china! is another carpenter classic. it's just fun and ridiculous.

 

[Octoberist]

yea, the prequel didn't really add much to the story.
it's just kinda cool to see a monster messing stuff up, and the little details like how the axe end up on the wall, and how what ended up where when the american team went to the norwegian base.

and seeing mary elizabeth winstead is always good. though they never resolve what happens to her character in the end.

one of my friends said he liked the prequel more, because he thinks the cgi effects look better than the practical effects...i do feel like i should de-friend him now though. lol.

The problem with the stuff with the axe thing is that it's all inconsequential and superflovious junk. It's almost before they wrote a script, they had that 'origins' of the axe from the get-go, and comes off as dishonest.

I don't hate the prequel. I like the visuals and Winstead, but man.

 

[Teelie]

and seeing mary elizabeth winstead is always good. though they never resolve what happens to her character in the end.

My guess was she'd somehow survive for an inevitable sequel had the prequel been a bigger success.

 

[Octoberist]

How would she survive and continue the story when the movie led up to the original film? Unless I'm being short-sighted.

 

[Teelie]

It would go this way:
Prequel: Kate Lloyd (Winstead) ends up alone in a crawler but is somehow found by another research/rescue team or manages to find her way to safety of another station.
Original film: After all that goes down, McCready and Childs may/may not live to be found by a rescue team (perhaps at the insistence/warning of Kate) alerting them to the danger.
Sequel: McCready and/or Childs survive (recast since the actors are now much too old) and join Kate to try to warn their rescuers about the Thing only to be ignored or too late and somewhere a remnant of the creature is found reigniting the whole process of who is or is not human.

That is how I would expect it to have gone if they were planning another movie. Since these would be literally continuations of one movie into the next there would be less time to sort out the details of just what happened to those two previous stations before all hell broke loose.

 

[Octoberist]

Wait a minute...so you would have the prequel, then the original, then a sequel after the original. That's just too confusing for the general audience though it would be funny to title the third film 'The Thing' too.

AND NOBODY RECASTS KURT RUSSELL. NOBODY!

 

[Teelie]

That was my theory of how the studio would have done it if the prequel were a success. They already confused the audience with the fact they were so unoriginal they just named their prequel The Thing and didn't subtitle or annotate it in any way to make it obviously a new movie (even if it were mostly just a remake in disguise). They might have had different plans but why else leave Kate's fate open ended? Unless it was more rehashing the original movie with the fates of McCready and Childs...

 

[Octoberist]

It shows that Universal had no idea what to do with the franchise and why they're suffering as a studio. Thank God for Legendary.

 

[Piper Maru]

John Carpenter's The Thing is one of my all-time favorite movies.

 

[chintai80]

jack burton, snake plissken, elvis.

nobody should ever play these characters..except for kurt russell.

 

[marcvader]

jack burton, snake plissken, elvis.

nobody should ever play these characters..except for kurt russell.

Truth

The Thing is one of my favorites as well.

 

[Beanjuice]

The Thing is one of my favorite movies. I could watch it all day. It was terrifying, and captivating in the right ways. The things Rob Botin did with the FX are mind blowing for it's time.

 

[chintai80]

Rob Bottin also designed the original robocop suit.
dude is a master. they don't make them like they use to.