When making a list of movies you love, you tend to feel as if you are parsing through your children to decide which is the best. I have a bunch of movies I love and a few that I utterly adore, but of all of them, the one I love most is the 1982 remake “The Thing.” It’s sad but sorta fitting that the world didn’t quite know what to make of the film. Director John Carpenter, while having had some success with “Halloween” and other films under his belt, had pessimistic undertones that weren’t really the vibe of the summer of 1982. Not with “E.T.” hitting the screen. It’s cold comfort for him, I am sure, but it’s nice that the film has finally been appreciated for what it is.
Stark, grim, and merciless, this is as much about the distrust of one another as it is the unease that something ‘other’ could infiltrate our trust circle. It’s a shame that the film’s tone and isolation were seen more as mean-spirited and slim when they fully captured the reality of these men, who stood as a last line of defense against an unimaginable enemy. These were blue-collar men, thousands of miles away from the world, trying to make a few bucks and sacrificing their comfort to do so. Suddenly, they are faced with not just something that feels nearly impossible to understand, but it’s far more dangerous than anything that’s ever been on the planet before. And the thing is, in neither the book, the original film, nor the remake do they really get into much detail about the nature of “the thing.” Is it a singular organism, or a collective? Is it the full totality of its race, or but one piece? And does it, or did it, ever have a “true” form? And can it truly die?
The “thing” is a singular creation. It’s horrifying in that it, similar to the creature in “Frankenstein,” can stand for so many different things. It represents distrust, paranoia, invasion, takeover, infection, nameless horror, the fear of the other, and the very base fear of being devoured. It is not an animal, per se, but something of strange intelligence that can evolve and adapt to its environment in order to survive. It’s an utterly horrifying creation because it has a cheat code other creatures don’t: it can be nearly ANY living thing, so long as it can absorb its core DNA.
Yikes.
The original story, “Who Goes There” (later expanded) by author John W. Campbell, perfectly captures the paranoia of the Red Scare era of history, while also reminding us that the vast sky holds things we cannot hope to imagine. It is a story similar to what we see in the film “Aliens,” where science (and the military) wants something it doesn’t understand to study and, perhaps, to exploit, even if only its knowledge. The creature in the story, and later film “The Thing From Another World,” is intelligent, crafty, and cunning, but can still be tricked and thus beaten. It is close, but it can be managed, and serves to show us that mankind may be far from the top of the pyramid when it comes to the cosmos.
The original 1950s film has a campy edge, but it is filled with great energy, tremendous direction, and a sense of danger. While the story is certainly scarier, in that it captures the beast’s shape-shifting nature, the film has a sincere charm that is hard to match. Fans of the remake who haven’t checked out the original, or read (or checked out an adaptation of) the book, are really cheating themselves.
For me, there’s no beating the remake because it captures the book while also deepening the horror and asking questions that people still struggle to answer. The idea of WHO the creature is and WHEN it is that person is one thing, but that it can pass so well as them, to the point of knowing their memories and thoughts, is deeply horrifying. It’s nearly a demonic possession, where the spirit is gone, but the body remains, with an echo of the personality within. And the very fact that the creature’s motives are never known. Is it pure survival, or is there something darker at play as well?
I listened to an AI reading (bleh!) of the novelized adaptation of the screenplay for the ‘82 film, and it was fascinating. There is one big setpiece that is different, and would have been amazing if filmed (but very costly), and has twists and turns in the climax and ending that are great for fans. It can be found and read online, though tracking a paperback may be tricky.
In the 1990s, I remember the release of the “Thing from Another World” comics, which was a sequel to the 1982 film. It’s a really fun series, and answers the big question from the movie, and was a big fave for me as a kid.
And as for me, I really like “The Thing,” the 2011 prequel. It’s not the original, and that’s a big sticking point for many; besides that, the producers jettisoned the practical effects in favor of a movie heavy on CGI. Yes, the effects aren’t as good as practical, and can take you out of the film, but the movie captures the spirit and gloom of Carpenter’s, and doesn’t blink at its grim finale. The climax turns into a bit of an action movie, but it still works for me. Getting a film in that universe, with that creature, was something I never dreamed of. It isn’t perfect by a long shot, but it’s creepy, gross, and fun. The fact is that it’s not a story that NEEDS more than already exists, but I ain’t mad that there was more. Heck, they even made a video game that captured some of the horror of the other forms of the story, which is crazy to imagine.
The things that scare you, that tickle the tender parts of your brain, and stick with you are completely personal. I remember being a 10-year-old kid, sleeping on my parents’ floor after seeing “The Thing” on VHS, and waking to my mother shape-shifting above me as I lay on the floor. The movie got me good. Just as “The Blair Witch Project” did. THAT is what connects me to both films.
They got me good.
There is something primal about the core of “Who Goes There” and “The Thing” that makes them stand the test of time. The acting, sets, effects, music, and the film’s amazing direction are what make it my favorite. It says more about the nature of humans and conflict than most heralded dramas can hope, and has stood the test of time since its ill-fated opening. When many prestige films are lost to time, the cold horrors of “The Thing” remain, waiting to assimilate the next generation.
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