THE THING : The Musical AKA Escape from the Shining Alien Thing From Beyond the Stars (fan edited film) – review

OK, let me get this out of the way first. 

I am not a fan of fan edits. 

I mean, cool on folks that do them and that enjoy them. It’s basically like a remix, something that was big back in the day and still is around to some degree. What bothers me about it is that it makes the fan the center of this universe, which takes the art from the work. 

Fans are PART of things but not the center. 

We have seen what happens when fans are considered too much, and it’s that we get things that just play for those folks only, and if they don’t like it, well, then no one will in the end. 

I saw this through a friend and…well…it’s a fan edit. It’s weird to review it but I figure that there may be folks into it and willing to jump through the hoops it takes to see it so…is it worth it?

It’s not bad. 

I mean, it’s a fan edit, but it’s really well done. 

Let’s dive in. 

The film sets things up with a structure similar to THE SHINING showing the lads of Outpost 31 being very, very bored, cutting things so that early moments in the film are interspersed over and over again. The film plays as usual, though through it we get flashbacks to what some of the characters may have done when they were not in the arctic, like being in a street gang, or espousing the wonders of oatmeal. There are a lot of moments like that, or musical or visual gags that are added that keep the laughs coming. The weirdness comes in when you realize that they have cut in scenes from Predator films and Alien films into the affair, and when E.T. shows up I can only guess that Carpenter is out there somewhere pulling for the little fella to come down with a nasty case of the Blairs. The film teeters, it totters, and with all of the additions it threatens to go off the rails but it never does. They stuff the film, and then overstuff it but it somehow works. The ending gets a bit weird with so many plates spinning, but it is never not funny, what they are adding in, and man alive, all I can say is to stay after the credits because that makes the whole thing. Think of that chef’s kiss gif and that’s it. 

This is what it is, it’s a fan edit, done lovingly, and jokingly, and it’s strictly for fans that know the film well enough to know how weird this stuff is that they are adding but still gets it. It’s a cut for superfans that love figuring out the samples in the songs they hear. 

I can’t say it’s great, but it’s fun, and it’s worth a look if you are into fan edits. 

Where and how you find it buster, that’s up to you. 

Worth a look if you have some friends to watch it with or perhaps something to make the laughs even better. 

…c…