Movie Riview The Thing In the remote Antarctica, a team of American scientists is disturbed by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. The creature then brutally attacks humans and canines, absorbing and shifting to take on their form.
The Thing is a shape-shifting alien predator that is capable of assimilating and absorbing life forms. It can also mimic the physical characteristics, language, and even memories of its victims.
The Story Movie Riview The Thing
The Thing is a 1982 science fiction film directed by John Carpenter that was one of the most iconic horror movies of its time. It has spawned a number of sequels, a video game, a board game and even a prequel in 2011.
The story is set at an Antarctic research camp, where the crew are attacked by a two-headed monster that can assume the shape of its victims. It attacks both humans and animals, and its
abilities include reshaping the victim’s cellular structure, allowing tentacles, insect-like limbs, eyes, teeth, claws and even faces to appear in their body.
It’s also capable of killing its host by dissolving it and rearranging their cellular structure, and it will only assimilate organisms that are fresh and living.
This means that a person killed by the Thing will eventually become a Thing itself, which makes it a very terrifying movie.
Moreover, it can also clone itself, meaning that a copy of the Thing can reproduce itself and reassemble itself in another human body.
John Carpenter Movie Riview The Thing
This means that if the Thing is left unchecked, it could take over the world and begin to wipe out all life forms on Earth.
As the American scientists try to figure out how to combat it, they discover that the Thing is able to mimic other animals and people by absorbing their vital organs and bits of their anatomy,
rearranging their cellular structure to replicate itself into the form of its chosen victim. This makes the creature very difficult to kill, and it is only able to do so when the person it is assimilating dies.
A few of the characters in the film are killed onscreen or caught in mid-transformation, including a dog that is transformed into The Thing during an attack by a helicopter pilot and Carter’s dog who is
reshaped into the Thing when he’s infected. These scenes are incredibly creepy and frightening, and the make-up effects of The Thing were a landmark at the time that still stand up today.
Despite its gruesome nature, The Thing remains a classic of the horror genre and it’s been re-released every 30 years or so since 1951. It’s been adapted for television, video games, comic
books and even a prequel in 2011 that was based on the original film. It has also had a significant influence on other movies and filmmakers, and it continues to inspire and fascinate audiences to this day.
The Cast Movie Riview The Thing
One of the most influential sci-fi horror films of all time, John Carpenter’s 1982 The Thing was released at the same time as Blade Runner and E.T. It found an audience on home video and
television, and spawned an array of merchandise, including a novelization, haunted house attractions, board games, and a 2011 prequel film.
It is considered a key work in the genre, and filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino have used it as inspiration for their own work.
Carpenter’s film is a fusion of the horror and science fiction genres, relying on its dark themes of alienation, assimilation, and demon possession to create suspense. Unlike most sci-fi horror
movies, which typically feature only a single main protagonist, The Thing is a film with several characters who are able to survive the events of the story and ultimately save humanity from the creature.
The cast of The Thing included a variety of actors, many of whom would go on to star in other John Carpenter films. Kurt Russell was the lead,
playing MacReady, a man who is trapped at the base of Thule Station after being assimilated into the alien.
Kurt Russell
Movie Riview The Thing Russell had previously appeared in two of Carpenter’s other films, Escape from New York and The Electric Company.
He was not the first choice for the role of MacReady, but director John Carpenter was confident in his ability to captivate audiences.
Eventually, he was able to convince Universal to greenlight the project. His relationship with producer Stuart Cohen proved crucial to the success of the film.
The chemistry between the actors was evident throughout the film, and many critics were impressed by their performances.
In particular, Charles Hallahan (Slither), Richard Dysart (The Last Boy on Earth), Donald Moffat (61*), and Wilford Brimley (Frankenstein) were all praised for their performances.
Another highlight of the film is the casting of Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who played Kate. In interviews, Winstead explained that she had studied
Ellen Ripley as a child and had always been drawn to the sci-fi genre. She also cited the Alien series as an influence on her character.
The Visuals
Movie Riview The Thing In the film, Carpenter and his effects team create some truly spooky and cinematic appearances for the eponymous monster. It’s a creature that has the terrifying ability to clone itself, and it hides in
plain sight by becoming anything else. It’s a frighteningly intimate threat that makes you itch, even if it’s not the most nauseating of all the sci-fi horror monsters.
For the first time in a live-action film, Thing actually comes to life in a manner that’s more realistic than most of the other Xenomorphs we’ve seen in films. That’s thanks to the decision to use a
prosthetic tail-end of Victor Dorobantu’s severed hand to complete the illusion. The rest of the body was painted out in post-production with some minor computer-generated enhancements.
This was a difficult task for the team at Image Engine, as it required the creation of a variety of complex rotoscoping and compositing elements that were not part of the original visual effects
package. To make sure that the final scenes looked realistic, they relied on the assistance of a talented crew that included Senior Effects Producer Paul O’Neill and FX Supervisor John McMillan.
The team was able to make use of a variety of tools from Houdini and Maya, including blood, slime, drool and flaps of skin.
TK Carter
Movie Riview The Thing The most challenging element was the creation of the Thing’s transformations.
To create the Thing’s drool, the team created a number of different animations, including a suckable mouth and a dripping lip. They also created a number of different facial expressions that the
character would have throughout the story, including a panicked expression when he’s about to eat his victim.
For the other Thing transformations, the team worked with a combination of digitally generated and practical effects. They used a combination of rigs, compositing and rotoscoping to create these gruesome effects.
It’s a testament to the skill of the team at Image Engine that their work isn’t jarring or distracting, as it often is in other live-action movies. This is because of the countless levels of planning and pre-
production that went into creating these scenes, with extensive storyboards being created by Michael Ploog and Mentor Huebner
to ensure that the entire production was on the same page and had a clear set of goals for the day.
The Soundtrack
The Thing is one of the most skin-crawlingly claustrophobic horror films ever made. Starring Kurt Russell, it follows a research team in Antarctica who are infected by a shape-shifting alien that assimilates and imitates human organs.
While movies in this genre are typically reliant on gory special effects and a chilling landscape, the soundtrack is also crucial to the overall impact.
Horror films are often quite complex, and their soundtracks need to be able to convey a sense of tension, fear, anxiety, and even revulsion.
There are several different types of music that can be used to evoke the mood of a horror movie. The most obvious is a traditional orchestral score,
but there are also more modern methods that composers can use. Some of these include electronic music, synthesizers, and sampled sound.
Many horror directors use a combination of these techniques to create a soundtrack that fits the tone of their film. It’s a great way to keep the music relevant without going overboard, and it allows for a more authentic feel to the film.
Ricard Masur
Another example of this is Howard Shore’s soundtrack for Videodrome, which starts off with a classical-orchestral piece and gradually incorporates electronic music as the main character loses
his mind. The score harks back to the days when horror films were very much about symphonic themes, and it helps to set the scene for the spooky action that’s to come.
It’s interesting to see how Morricone used a range of musical styles on The Thing, and it’s a good example of how composers can work with a director to create a score that fits the mood of their film.
His first track, “Humanity Part I,” sets the scene for the isolation of the research station in Antarctica as it’s invaded by the alien.
After this, there’s the frantic pizzicato strings of “Contamination,” which adds to the sense of paranoia and infection.
It’s not as memorable as some of the other pieces, but it still works well and it evokes the feeling of the alien invasion very effectively.
The soundtrack for The Thing is coming out on a pair of LPs this spring, courtesy of Waxwork Records and Sacred Bones.
It includes the original soundtrack by Ennio Morricone as well as a second LP, Lost Cues: The Thing, which contains music that Carpenter himself wrote for the film.