The Thing

Vlad Piranha · Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 1:29 am Post subject: The Thing

You'd better believe I was seeing this the opening night. John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece remains one of my two favorite horror films of all time, second only to Alien. I approached this film cautiously, however, as prequels this past decade have not been kind to source material. I'll let you know that there's alot to like here if you're a fan of the original, but it's important that you see that one first. There's no benefit to seeing the two films "in order" since so much of this one builds upon the thrill of the original film and the original is more about shock and surprise to get a rise from viewers. If you're one of the unfortunate souls out there who loves horror flicks but hasn't seen the 1982 film, go see it first and then fit this one into your schedule. I'm making a nice break in the paragraph here to make it easy to avoid reading further as I'll be discussing this new film under the assumption that you've seen John Carpenter's The Thing. I repeat, if you haven't seen that one, stop reading now.

For those of you who are initiated, you can probably guess the general plot of this film. Before the horrific events at the American research base, there was the nightmare that took place at the Norweigan base. This film is a prequel that centers around those events and the poor fools who found the creature in the first place. The first act centers around the Norweigan research team discovering the crashed ship in the ice and dragging back the specimen they find frozen not far from the crash site. Too eager to set a precedent and receive awards for their work, they bring it inside their base to let it thaw for further study. This proves to be disastrous when the specimen turns out to be very much alive and escapes. While the rest of the population is eager to find the creature to recapture it to continue study, the only person in their group to express any caution is the American paleontologist/consultant who tested early blood samples and realizes the potential threat of what they found. As blood begins to spill, she understands that simple lethal force is not the only terror they face, but a paranoia and fear that noone is what they seem and any amount of trust may be the last mistake any of the crew face.

There's a thin line between doing something too different and doing something too much the same. This film treads very gently in between the two and manages to succeed where it may have failed. The pitfall to paying homage to the original film is that so many events in this one are somewhat predictable. That doesn't ruin the experience, but you'll never be left as completely confused as the 1982 film left you. The feeling that you didn't know any more about what to do than the average terrified character was part of what made the first film such a psychological thriller. The third person perspective gave you no more of an edge than the cast. This film plays on so many past experiences, parts of it got chuckles from my friends and me because we had an idea of what horrible thing would occur next. It was part of the charm of the film, though. This time, the dread came from knowing what would happen to the vast majority of the cast and how oblivious they were of what would soon unfold.

Don't make the mistake I did of walking into this film thinking that you know precisely how it will end. This film may dovetail very neatly with the '82 film, but there enough originality here that it won't play out quite the way you expect. Sure, there will be death and mayhem, but how the finale leads into the original film's introduction is surprising. It felt satisfying. This wasn't a Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by any means. The entire point of this movie was not to lead into a follow-up, but to lay out a frightening tale all its own and leave you with an epilogue that explains how what you just witnessed was all connected to that other great sci-fi wonder that was the original. I actually need to see this movie a second time so I can keep my eye on the different plot threads and how they all come together at the end. That alone proves that it wasn't so simple that I had it all figured out all along. I'm a bit disappointed in how the creature uses so much brute force in this film to kill instead of pure trickery to catch victims like the original. I suppose you could conclude that the monster changes tactics for the Americans due to events here not going how it had hoped. On a second viewing, I know I could figure out when and where each member of the research base was grabbed in this film. Even now the original Thing doesn't give you that luxury. It's still a great mystery and that's why I love it so much. A final note: there's an epilogue during the credits, so don't go running out of the theater.

All in all, this was a worthy successor that I think fans will approve of and I think it earns a B minus.