THE THING (1982)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
It always amazes me how times change. Back in 1982, John Carpenter's "The Thing" was a box-office failure. The critics excoriated the filmmaker for making a vomit-inducing picture with too many icky special-effects and too little character development, not to mention the gall of remaking a classic 1951 movie. The truth is that Carpenter went back to the original source, "Who Goes There?" a novella by John W. Campbell, and made a captivating, if slightly less invested in its human characters, monster movie that thrives on suspense and not relentless gore.
Naturally, when I think back to "The Thing," I recall the head with spider legs, the alien cadavers composed of other bodies, the freezing cold temperatures of the Antarctic, the Dog-Thing that drives other dogs nuts, etc. The one image that stands out, that narrowly focuses on the dread and bleak tone that drives Carpenter's film, is the opening sequence. It shows a dog running in the snow as it evades a Norwegian helicopter in the horizon. Why is the helicopter chasing the dog? We don't know but we know things are rotten in the deep freeze of this winterland when the Norwegian steps out of the helicopter and threatens to kill the dog. Madness ensues as our American motley crew of scientists and soldiers kill the pilot and another Norwegian accidentally blows himself up with a grenade. The terror has begun but our crew has no idea what they got in store.
My only disappointment with "The Thing" is that the characters are merely archetypal. There are exceptions - Kurt Russell's MacReady is one we can semi-root for who knows that this thing will not easily be contained. Keith David also stands out as another soldier, Childs, who is ready for a fight especially with his trusty flamethrower. Also worth a mention is Wilford Brimley (in possibly the strangest role of his career) as a biologist who goes insane (and who wouldn't when there is a deadly alien and an endless blizzard in the middle of it all?). Brimley's character is eventually held in a separate housing unit to shield him from causing more harm to others. There is also the warm-hearted and canine-loving Clark (Richard Masur) who is in charge of the kennel where things get out of control. The movie becomes a whodunit, as clearly evidenced from the novella's "Ten Little Indians" scenario, and it is a guessing game as to who is more dangerous than the other and who is human, and who isn't. Most of these militant, rough-edged, macho characters are tough to like and it is difficult to root for most of them. Even MacReady kills one person without hesitation - maybe the point is that the solitary environment can induce cabin fever and make killers out of all us. I buy that but I am not sure it makes any difference to me who dies and who lives, which is probably why the ending is left open-ended with two surviving characters.
I would not prefer this remake over the stunning original but both movies are not exactly peas in the same pod. The Howard Hawks-produced and Christian Nyby-directed
The Thing focused on a patriotic crew trying to kill a menace (though I hardly think of it is a Red Menace as some viewers allege) - the menace in the shape of a Frankenstein Monster-type. John Carpenter's version goes back to the original source, having a creature that mimics its crew and eventually forms a monstrous, bloody and oozing-various-liquids-out-of-its-pores "thing" that would not have appeared in any 1950's cinematic interpretation. The atmosphere is startlingly realized by cinematographer Dean Cundey, the music by Ennio Morricone grows on you, and the special-effects are amazing and chilling to witness. But Carpenter's "Thing" has very little humanity overall, despite a great deal of suspense, and we just want to see more of the distorted alien than the human crew members who elicit precious little sympathy. A fascinating, icky, watchable and repulsive film to watch but I can't say I hated it or loved it. - it is middle-of-the-road John Carpenter that far exceeds "The Fog" but is not on the same level as "Halloween" or "Escape From New York."
