John Carpenter's The Thing, a review.
The Thing has to be one of the best films John Carpenter has ever put out. Now, I know some might like The Fog or In the Mouth of Madness more, and I am a massive fan of the latter, but The Thing remains one that took the alien premise and ran in a direction I did not expect upon first viewing. Set in the Antarctic, the film opens up with a husky being chased through the snow by a helicopter, men within firing shots at the fleeing animal. This sets up the premise that the men have gone mad, a form of cabin fever that has led to crazed violence, or at least that is the initial assumption that the American researchers reach after this strange and violent encounter. From the outset, the husky moves about in a fashion that seems unusual, and stares at the men in silence, with no dog-like friendliness or curiosity in its manner. Here the doctor wants to go to the camp of these men and discover if any others remain, see if there remain others in need, and Mac(Kurt Russell's MacReady) is volunteered to take him. He has reservations about Cooper's eagerness to push the pilot to take the journey.
The two arrive at the camp to find things in disarray with signs of violence about the site. A body sits in the frigid cold with its wrists slit, the blood frozen as it drains from the wounds, and the pair continue their search with the vain hope that they'll find anyone alive. MacReady finds the massive block of ice, looking like its contents had been carved or thawed out. We are beginning to get a taste of what is to come, the pair going outside to find the burned remains of what appears to partially be a man or once what might have been men. Cooper decides they should take the anomaly back along with everything else he has collected from the site. Upon arrival, they conduct an autopsy on the remains, and Blair finds that the internal organs appear normal despite the strange appearance of the remains. It isn't until they return that the 'dog' is taken from wandering freely about the camp and put with their sledge dogs.
This is the first time we get to see the 'creature' as the dog begins to transform and the dogs go wild. It lashes out with sprouted tentacles and douses some with some kind of liquid, as it works to absorb these dogs and seemingly take their shapes. It is a gruesome sight to behold, one that gets worse as the humans arrive to watch this creature attacking the dogs. Quickly they set about burning the creature, the Thing developing thick arms that reach up into the wooden ceiling before Giles can arrive and douse the creature with flame. From here on out, our protagonists wonder how much danger they are in. Again an autopsy is enacted, and Blair finds the remains of the creature to be amid imitation, changing its form to match the sledge dogs and replace them. From here on out we begin to see the first hints of growing paranoia and distrust growing amid the group, Blair showing signs first as he delves into the chances of this entity infecting those around him. They watch through the videotapes taken from the Norwegian camp and discover that they had blown something free of the ice, something massive. Mac decides to see just what that is. Together, the trio land and find what they had been excavating, a crashed spaceship of some kind, estimated to have been there for a least one hundred thousand years. Returning to their camp, they inform the rest, and they react with disbelief, questioning Mac as if he has all the answers. It is worth noting that we get the first hint here that someone has already been replaced.
From this moment onwards, the film builds towards developing the tension, the subtle growing distrust, and placing Mac at the centre of this whole thing. Mac is warned that Blair is showing signs of becoming unbalanced, sure now that they are in imminent danger of infection. His notebook denotes that the remains are not yet dead. This leads to Benning's being taken by the remains from the Norwegian camp. Mac rushes to see the partially imitated Bennings attempting to flee into the night and burning it before it can escape. Again the tension is upped as they burn the rest of the remains, and we see Blair destroying vehicles on-site before running back inside. Events follow on to where Blair has become convinced that some are already infected/replaced and is in the middle of destroying the radio equipment, doing his best to cut them off. He is quickly subdued, but he succeeds in his mission. They lock him up in the tool shed, and before Mac leaves, Blair warns him to watch Clark, believing him to already have been replaced. The film does a great job of keeping the tension and distrust high throughout, the viewer unsure of who is to be trusted.
With a test suggested, a blood serum test to see some kind of reaction, they head back inside, and it is soon discovered that the blood is gone and only two individuals possess access to the blood via key. Again this is a moment of growing tension amid the group, things escalating as Windows runs for a gun, his fear overriding his caution. At this Mac begins to take charge, as Norris declines. Outside in the snow, Mac separates the group into two, giving a speech to them about what the creature is doing. Again we get that sense of us against them, as one group is believed to be untrustworthy, possibly infected, or replaced. The trio is sedated by Norris as Mac records a message, showing that two days have passed since the speech outside. We get more information on the possible imitation of one of them as long john's had been found shredded and Mac's growing distrust. Again Mac is warned of the risk of infection by Fuchs, the man last seen in his room, and then chasing someone out into the snow. Things begin to rapidly escalate as they search for Fuchs, the group splitting up with distrust voiced about their company, Fuchs, is found in the snow, burned up by someone or something. After Mac takes them to his shack, Nauls returns convinced that Mac has been turned, finding torn clothing in his shack. Somehow Mac returns, and the group descends on him, determined to kill him, believing he is a threat to them. Unfortunately for them, Mac manages to grab some dynamite and holds the others at bay, Norris collapsing from what appears to be a heart attack.
Here we get one of the most famous scenes as they gather together and Cooper attempts CPR on the unconscious Norris. As he goes to defibrillate Norris, his chest opens up, and massive fangs bite through Cooper's arms. Norris's body quickly changes, the creature coming up from his chest before Mac sets it ablaze. I will forever remember the following scenes as Norris' head separates from its body, coming to rest on the floor before pulling itself away by its tongue and quickly sprouting legs from the head and attempting to scurry away. Palmer soon spots it, and the 'head' is set afire. It is a killer scene highlighting that the creature is not one thing, but a gestalt entity. Mac, registering this, devises a new test, binding the rest after he is forced to shoot Clark. Again we get blood and gore as it is revealed that Palmer is one of them, and he quickly dispatches Windows before Mac can kill them both.
Discovering that Blair has escaped, and is one himself, they conclude that they need to destroy the camp, stop it from escaping, and prevent it from going back to sleep within the ice. They are separated from Giles as they go about this work, following Blair's trail back to their camp. The camp is set ablaze, with the trio setting dynamite up to blow the rest of the camp. At this moment in the film Gary and Nauls are taken by Blair before he attempts to kill Mac. Thankfully he manages to escape, tossing a lit stick of dynamite at the creature before running up from the frigid basement area. All of this is done well with effects that stand the test of time, with the merging of Gary's face and Blair's hand still disturbing to see as he drags him away. In the end, we see that only Mac and Giles are left, the camp burning around them, and both men are aware that they don't have long left. It is left open whether either man is the Thing, watching the other in distrust as the weather and extreme cold begin to take their toll on both of them. I always liked this ending, both men sat there as the screen fades to dark, and we, as the viewer, are left uncertain whether they defeated the creature or if it lays in wait somewhere. That remaining paranoia is meant to stay with you, to linger after the film's ending.
From beginning to end, the film is well-acted, the tension remains high throughout, and you can feel the oppressive isolation that the surroundings impress upon all proceedings. It is strange to think that the film wasn't well-received upon its release, but in the following years, it gathered a cult following. It has spawned a game, a prequel, and several comic books and still remains in the public consciousness nearly forty years later. I will always think of it as one of the best sci-fi films I have ever watched, with an interesting alien and brilliantly tense atmosphere.
Let me know what you think, whether you love it or hate it, and your views on why it works or doesn't.
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