The Thing (1982)

The Thing (1982)
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Donald Moffat, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Richard Masur
Memorable Quotes: "I dunno what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is."

The Thing deals out suspense and gore in equal amounts and for some, the gore may be over the top, but the suspense makes this move worth your time.

The Plot of The Thing
Although The Thing is really a remake, this version goes back to the source material which is a short story by Joseph Campbell called "Who Goes There" with all the paranoia and suspense that comes with it. Plus a lot of gore thrown in by director Carpenter.

The story starts when an isolated arctic outpost gets a distress call and they head out to investigate. Led by the helicopter pilot, McCready (Russell), they discover something terrible has happened at a peer outpost. Most of the inhabitants are dead. They also discover a massive hole in the ice, city blocks wide, that seems to be the excavated site of a alien ship' crash landing. While are humans are dead, there is one dog that is still alive and they decide to bring it back. And that's when the story really gets moving because something other worldly is brought back with the dog and the crew of the outpost find themselves fighting for their lives. And even more frightening is that that they may be fighting for the survival of humanity.

The Performances and Direction of The Thing
The film, while polished, has a low budget feel without looking cheap, but that doesn't hurt the the movie at all. Carpenter plays up the paranoia and suspense at the beginning of the movie to full effect. Russell leads the cast as McCready, but all the members of the cast bring a believability to their roles. All of these actors are experience veterans and the acting never seems like run of the mill low-budget horror film acting. Wilford Brimley and Donald Moffat stand out as the scientist and leader of the outpost.

Carpenter's directions works well for the movie, but I have always wondered if the film would have been more effective had he decided to dial back on the over-the-top gore and made a choice to stress the suspense and tension of the intrinsic dilemma that faced the characters in the film.

You can also tell that Carpenter had some influence on Ennio Morricone's score by it's simplicity and effectiveness in places.

Summary Judgment of The Thing
The Thing is not for everyone because it's gore sometimes gets out of hand, but don't get me wrong, it's not totally gratuitous. It's a directorial choice. Still, in spite of that choice, The Thing is truly a chilling cinema event.