One of my all time favorite horror films and one of the greatest suspense films ever made is John Carpenter's remake of The Thing. I have seen the movie over a hundred times and it still thrills me every time. A few years ago they released a prequel to John Carpenter's film simply titled THE THING. In a way Mr. Carpenter's film is a pseudo sequel of Howard Hawks 1951 film The Thing From Another World but it is wildly regarded as a remake or re-imagining of that film. So a prequel to the pseudo sequel would make the new film a remake of a remake?
When I first heard they were doing the film I was psyched. Much of Carpenter's film refers back to the unseen events at a Norwegian camp. We gets glimpses of what happened to them. We see where their bodies ended up. The burnt out remains of their camp. An axe imbedded in the wall. And a massive empty block of ice. We see a charred corpse too of what looks to be two humans fusing together. In the beginning of the film we meet the survivors of the Norwegian camp trying to kill a sled dog.
This new movie was going to tell us how everything got the way it was in the Carpenter film. An ambitious undertaking since the 1981 film has become so Legendary amongst fans. My buddy Clint and I were among that fanbase. We went to it opening night with hopes high and ready for a fun movie.
Basically it's the same thing as the other film. A team of scientists head to Antarctica and discover the remnants of an alien space craft buried deep in the ice. They also find a "life form"frozen in the ice.
They cut it out and haul it to base. Once there the ice begins to thaw and the "thing" breaks free! No one can properly identify the life form as it keeps changing it's shape. It kills members of the team and then absorbs them, becoming a perfect copy. The remaining survivors don't know who to trust or who might be the thing. One by one they are absorbed by the creature until only a small few remain. But are they human? Or were they taken by the thing too?
The movie was good, my friends and I agreed. I do have some beefs though. For one the creature design wasn't alien enough. By that I mean you could kind of compare it to a crab or crustacean at times or even a spider. You shouldn't be able to say "Oh it's a crab monster!" How the audience should describe is simply "It's uh... a thing!" The creature's design in the Carpenter film was incredibly bizarre and like nothing you had ever seen. My other beef is that the films didn't synch up very well. The Norwegians had things recorded of what they had done like setting explosive charges to free the ship from the ice. That never happened in this film nor was there someone video documenting their discovery. Word to the filmmakers- "If you are going to do a prequel go all the way. Don't half ass it."
Overall I like the film though. It doesn't hold a candle to the 1981 film but it does entertain and provide some grotesque visuals, my favorite being the scene where the two humans are fused together. The acting is good and so are the special effects. Despite it's flaws it is still a quality horror film. Strangely if you don't know the Carpenter film as well as I do it makes this film better. Me knowing every single detail of the 1981 film hurts this film. Oh well. So to the average viewer the 2011 film will better than my review. But don't misunderstand me, I do still like the film quite a bit. I found it for cheap on blu ray. Well worth it.
Overall Ranking: 5 out of 10
Nude-O-Meter: 1 out of 10
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