"The Thing" Revisited

I was eager to try out the features of my new iPad so I decided to rent John Carpenter's 1982 movie The Thing from iTunes in order to check out video quality and convenience.

Last year I had listened to the short story "The Things" by Peter Watts via a Clarkesworld Magazine podcast. It is a retelling of the story from the perspective of The Thing. The story rekindled a desire in me to watch this movie again. I had seen The Thing in the 80's when it first got to video and I seem to recall that I had walked away in disappointment. I'm not sure why that is because now that I have watched it again I must say that I quite enjoyed it!

I won't spoil the story for you. It is about an alien life form that is discovered frozen in the ice of Antarctica. The creature exists by assimilating lifeforms around it and taking on their appearance. The movie revolves around a group of researchers who are faced with the horror of trying to figure out who has become one of the creatures and who is still human. Kurt Russell is the main character McCready.

What I noticed most about this movie is that even though it was filmed in 1982, it does not appear dated. I would attribute that mainly to the fact that parkas and winter boots never go out of style! Apart from a scene with an old computer and another where McCready records himself on a cassette recorder, you would not know it was shot  almost 30 years ago. Even the creature effects are quite good.

The movie is based on a 1930's novella by John W. Campbell called Who Goes There?. It was made into a movie in 1951 called The Thing From Another World. I saw this movie on TV when I was a kid and so I can only assume that my first disappointment in the John Carpenter version was that it was not like this one. The creature in The Thing From Another World is more of a big humanoid like monster that chases people around.

There is buzz in cyber-space that a prequel is in the works for The Thing. I'm going to assume it takes place at the Norwegian outpost where the creature first wreaked havoc.

Kind of interesting how something you had not thought about in years is suddenly rediscovered.

Bottom line is, if you like science fiction, 1982's The Thing should be on your must-see list. There is a fair amount of gore so not for the squeamish. Don't neglect the 1951 version though!

Incidentally Who Goes There? is available for download on iBooks.