Subject: Retrospective: The Thing (1982)

From: Jason Overbeck <[email-masked]>
Date: 28 Oct 1998 05:58:49 GMT

THE THING (1982)
***1/2 OF **** grade is B+

Don't want to see John Waters' Pecker than check out John Carpenter's
Thing.  That must be the ultimate control issue for directors, making
others ask to see your joystick.  If I ever make a film I'm sure I'll
title it Jason Overbeck's Third Leg.  Keeping with this train of thought
did you know Roger Ebert said of John Carpenter's Thing, that "Teenagers
can dare one another to watch."  I'll leave that one alone.

The Thing is a very effective movie, with scenes of shear suspense and
moments of terror and disgust.  It opened in 1982 with mixed reviews and
now seems to be a minor classic.  People will always remember the dogs
and the open-up chest and that blood-test scene.  They are perfectly
set-up and delivered, you can smile at the nifty special effects and
remember the good ole days before computer effects made lazy
imaginations.  Would any studio get away with a film like The Thing
now?  Hell no!  Not with that ending, those violent scenes with animals
and the general yuck feeling.

The story has a group of scientists in isolated Antarctica being
attacked by an alien that kills and replaces with a perfect clone.  Who
is and isn't infected?  Who can tell, the isolation has drawn strange
emotional states for all of these characters.  Leading the pack is pilot
(and antihero) MacReady (Kurt Russell) in a wacky-cool hat and a full
beard.  He is not unaffected by the isolation, he drinks too much and
plays long games of chess on his computer, but when duty calls he takes
command of the questionable group.

Guessing who is and isn't The Thing is almost impossible, everyone seems
to separate from each other and then look spooky.  The result leaves you
on the edge of your seat as they try to unmask the alien.  The final
answer leads you to feel that the screenwriter could have just picked a
name from a hat.  That doesn't matter much because this film is all
execution and the execution is slick, sick and a little gross.  It
recalls John Carpenter's much better classic Halloween.