The Thing (1982)

Film: The Thing (1982)

Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, TK Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Donald Moffat

Director: John Carradine

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-90's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

We do a film noir month every year for this blog in June, and I have a few things that I make sure to do every year, certain stars or directors that I basically require myself to go further into their filmographies as they are pioneers of the film noir genre (and have so many movies).  When you talk about horror films from the 1970's through the 1990's, few names command more respect and more intrigue than John Carpenter.  The horror master had already been part of the independent film scene for over a decade when he made Halloween on a shoestring budget in 1978, but it became a defining film in the genre (we watched it last year, link below for a review), and for the next several decades he would make unique, specific films, sometimes critically-lambasted (and then later rescued), one of which, The Thing, I watched for this blogathon for the first time this year.  I've already a made a note that if we continue this time frame for horror movies next season, we'll definitely have another Carpenter picture as there's a lot more to explore.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie takes place entirely on the continent of Antarctica.  The film starts with a group of American scientists who see a sled dog headed toward their station, and get into a shooting match with a nearby group of Norwegian scientists, and only the dog survives.  They kennel the dog with their dogs, but it turns out the dog isn't a dog at all...but some sort of alien life form that has been frozen for centuries in the ice of Antarctica.  It kills all of the dogs, but there's a problem-we learn pretty quickly that it can assimilate into anything, including the other men on the compound.  This causes mass pandemonium.  Initially, the group are run by Garry (Moffat), but pretty quickly MacReady (Russell) takes over, and starts to quarantine different figures that are suspected of being infected like Blair (Brimley), the biologist in the compound.  This sets up a rivalry with Childs (David), the mechanic for the station.  One by one, the people start to die, their bodies taken over by the Thing, until it's just MacReady and Childs at the end, their station blown up and as a result, they will die in the cold...unless one of them is the Thing.

The ending of the Thing, I found out after the movie, has long been the subject of debate and scrutiny, and before we get into discussing it, I am decidedly on the team of people who think it totally makes the picture (which until then was a solid, if occasionally gross, claustrophobic horror movie...the end of the world happening at the end of the world is a solid idea for this genre).  The ending implies initially that Childs & MacReady are prepared to die in this cold, knowing that's the only way they can prove to the other one that they are not the Thing.  They save humanity through their own doom, because trust is no longer possible.  It's a bleak ending, but it's also compounded by the fact that it's not the only answer.  Either Childs or MacReady could be the Thing, no longer concerned by the figure in front of them, since they know they'll die, and once they die, they will go ahead and destroy the world.  The Thing is one of the few horror films, thanks to its middling box office, that never got a sequel, so the brilliance of this ending never gets confirmed, and Carpenter wisely has never revealed what he thinks happened in the end.

This all adds up to a movie that deserved a better audience, because despite tepid critics at the time, it's great.  Russell, David, & Brimley are all really terrific in their parts, leaning into the stereotypes of these characters with just a hint of malice that I found added layers to the tone of the picture.  Carpenter knows how to use the "you're all trapped" aspect of the film in a really smart way by shooting a number of scenes outdoors-we get to see characters attempting to go to cars or other buildings...but they know in the end there's no way to get away from the Thing.  And of course, the makeup & special effects for this film are on another level.  No, they aren't getting into the hyper-realism that the landmark Ridley Scott film Blade Runner was achieving that same year, but they didn't need to-you understand pretty quickly when a man is having his chest cavity ripped apart and is eating another man's arm with his split rib cage that this is terrifying even without it being anatomically perfect.  All-in-all, another great take from Carpenter coming off of Halloween.

Past Horror Month Reviews

1920's: The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera

1930's: The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Mad Love, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Raven, Son of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London

1940's: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Cat People, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Invisible Woman, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, Phantom of the Opera, She-Wolf of London, Son of Dracula, The Uninvited, The Wolf Man

1950's: Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came from Outer Space, Revenge of the Creature

1960's: The Devil Rides Out, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead,Village of the Damned

1970's: The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, Don't Look Now, Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes, The Omen, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, When a Stranger Calls, The Wicker Man

1980's: Child's Play, The Evil Dead, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist

1990's-Present: The Blair Witch Project, Scream