It’s crazy that this is the first time I’ve seen this film.
I’ve known about it for years, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen
it. I’m glad I finally did, because it was refreshing to see it after being
burned out on all of Hollywood’s super polished releases. I’m going to take a
different approach with this review and just share my thoughts instead of
running down the whole plot of the movie. I’m sure everyone has seen it, and if
you haven’t I think it would be appreciated that I don’t completely wreck the
movie…this time.
Released in 1982, The Thing stars Kurt Russell, Wilfred
Brimley and…T.K. Carter. Why he gets higher billing than Keith David is a
question I’ll have to research to get the answer. The opening scene is one of
the cooler ones I’ve seen in a long while. I really dig the way the space craft
explodes into the title sequence. The mystery of the Thing starts up right
away, why is there a helicopter shooting a high powered rifle at a dog? Why can’t
they hit the damn thing? How is it possible for the poor thing to keep running
like that? The answers are in the frantic yells of the Norwegian, but sadly
what he says isn’t translated, so we are left thinking that something either
isn’t right about the dog, or that the poor guy was nuts. By the way I have to
admit I said “ooh” when the other guy was blown up by his own grenade. Not many
movies let you see a person get blown up like that. That is one of my favorite
things about this movie. It really just shows you what happens. In a matter of minutes
once the film starts, you see one man get blown WAY up, and another man get
shot in the head. I was sucked right in and wanted to see what was going to
happen.
I thought it was a nice touch of storytelling that they
actually had MacReady and the doctor go to the Norwegian campsite and showed
what they found. It was a tense scene that illustrated the hell that
broke loose there before the Thing was chased away. I did wonder, WHY in great
goodness did they think it was a good idea to bring that nasty mangled “corpse”
back to their camp. NOTHING about it looked normal, and even though it should
have been dead, NOTHING about it looked NORMAL. Everything about it gave me the
feeling that they should have left it sitting right there smoking in the snow.
BAD IDEA.
And that dog was really well trained. Everything about the way
it moved was sort of other worldly, and the scene where it casually walked
through the hall and went into the room where the guy was about to go to sleep
was so well done and had just the right feeling. Fade outs were used to the
maximum effect in this film. That shot where the dog goes into his room and you
see the man’s silhouette turn and look…then fade out--Creeptastic. I think I
wanted to buy this film at that moment.
Then the crap starts hitting the fan. The dog gets put in
the kennel, and some real nasty shit goes down. I guess the alien must have
felt threatened, or he was hungry or something because those poor dogs didn’t
have a chance once it got in there. That scene was excellently done. The
tension ramped up so I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. Once the “bad” dog
got to shaking I knew things were going to be bad, but I had no idea what I
about to see. Using practical effects and strategic camera shots, we see just how
terrifying the Thing really is. The Thing-dog splits open in a bunch of
different ways, tentacles fly out and whip through the air (the sound effects
here are well chosen) The dogs howl in fear and one tries to chew his way through
a chain link fence as one of them gets sprayed with what I imagine is something
like stomach acid. Bottom line the creators made this beast truly horrific and disgusting
and it just got worse as the scene progressed. By the time Childs (Keith David)
finally got himself to pull the trigger on the flame thrower the Thing was a
mess of organic parts on a mission to suck up everything in that room.
At this point we learn that Wilfred Brimley’s character Dr.
Blair has figured out that the alien will take over the earth in a very short
period of time if it is allowed to reach civilization, and that not a whole lot
of it is required to infect and take over another organism. He doesn’t tell anyone,
but this discovery drives him mad. Meanwhile everyone is unaware that the other
corpse they collected is still alive and that they are all still in danger.
Another scene I enjoyed was how Bennings was assimilated and then killed. It
reminded me of the body snatchers a bit how he howled out in the cold on his
knees before he was burned up. By the way killing by fire is a really gruesome
thing to do. Nothing for me is worse than seeing the struggle of a being doomed
to die like that. 
All the players in the story start distrusting each other,
and we get a new layer of depth to the story. Not only is there a monster after
everyone, but given enough time, it can perfectly replicate whatever it
absorbs. So who is human and who isn’t? Stuff starts breaking down pretty
quickly and it leads to some entertaining and frightening scenes. Wilfred
Brimley was great, end even though I kept thinking of oatmeal when he talked I
thought he was pretty badass. Other than this movie and Cocoon I’ve only seen
him in Oatmeal and Diabeetus commercials, so I feel like I’ve missed out on how
great an actor he really is. Once they get him into the shed, he seems to sober
up, and his delivery when he later tries to convince MacReady to let him come
back is unnerving especially when I felt sorry for him and distrusted him for
being a Thing at the same time. I think he had that noose in there to try and
convince MacReady to let him back in, and I thought he was a Thing at that
point, especially when he said “It ain’t ___!" (I can’t remember who he was
contesting at that point) but I thought it was weird for him to know with that
much certainty who wasn’t infected. When was he infected? They never show, but
I thought it was pretty nasty for him to touch the corpse with his pencil
eraser, and then put it that close to his mouth. If one cell can infect, then
it had to be there.
The last two scenes I need to point out are the
defibrillator scene, and the blood test scene. The practical effects here are
amazing I’ve never been so engrossed in a movie than I was here. The head
pulling off and then turning into that spider thing was gross and crazy. When
Palmer said “you gotta be F-ing kidding” I said “I know!” to no one in
particular. (I’m turning into my mother, who watches films and gets way into
them).
During the blood test scene I was glad they had a moment for
me to laugh when Garry screamed about being “Tied to this FUCKING COUCH!” because
before that I was a wreck. SO much work had to go into making Palmer into that
mess, having him travel up to the ceiling like that, struggle with Windows, and
then make Window’s half-turned corpse…I was blown away and upset that more
films today don’t utilize these types of effects. I’m sure it takes more time,
but the end result is much more desirable than the CGI-heavy stuff we get to
see nowadays. I don’t hate CGI, I just think it’s over used.
That being said I wish the ending scene was done
differently. It’s always hard to show a big monster like that without it
looking sort of false, especially when earlier in the film the Dog-Thing was
done so well. Maybe they only could have shown part of it, I don’t know, the
end was just sort of a let-down. It reminded me of the Alien reveal from 2003’s
Dreamcatcher.
Here’s a pic.—terrible.
Any way I really liked the movie, and as I said before I
plan to pick up a copy when I can. I would love to watch it again to parse
through all the events to see if I can better understand how and when everyone
was infected. I am definitely sorry I’m just now seeing this, but glad I
finally did. I agree that it’s a classic. One other note, I got the urge to
watch Aliens again after seeing this, maybe a great 70’s and 80’s sci-fi/horror
movie marathon is in my future.
