John Carpenter's The Thing (1982)

Forty years ago, this sci-fi horror thriller was released as director Carpenter’s follow-up to Escape From New York and Halloween, both of which were quite popular and pretty groundbreaking for the time.  It was a remake of the horror classic The Thing From Another World directed by the late great Howard Hawks – it has a top-flight cast of veteran actors lead by Kurt Russell including Keith David, Wilford Brimley, Richard Masur, Donald Moffett, and Alan Dysart among others.  It also featured state-of-the-art special effects from modern master Rob Bottin, a hummable score from the legendary Ennio Morricone, and crisp visuals from one of the best cinematographers of this era, Dean Cundey.  

Everything about this film was top-of-the-line…..so WHY was it so disliked when it first came out? :o Reviews were relatively bad as was the box office – however over time, this film has become a genuinely beloved cult classic now considered among John Carpenter’s best films.  Let’s go back to that isolated scientific facility to find out why....

Host: Geoff Gershon
 
 Editors: Geoff and Ella Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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Transcript

THE THING – 1982

Directed by John Carpenter

Starring Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley, TK Carter, David Clennon, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, and Jed the Dog

Genre: Sci-Fi Horror Thriller

Happy 40th Anniversary to a masterful sci-fi horror thriller from a true sci-fi horror master....which everyone pretty much shit on when it first came out. ☹️ Granted it came out amidst a crowded summer marketplace just STACKED with memorable genre pictures from ET to Wrath of Khan to Poltergeist to Conan the Barbarian to Blade Runner to Tron....mind you, this time period was so competitive that this was not the ONLY one among them to flop. But yeah back in '82, Hollywood was just on a relentless tear to find the next Star Wars or Alien...two iconic films from the '70's which along with Jaws, The Exorcist, Grease, and Rocky pretty much set the template for literally 70% of major studio output in the following decade.....

And sadly, The Thing was dismissed as an weak Alien-like pretender at the time of release....not helped by the fact that likely its signature FX sequence ALSO happened to feature a character's chest bursting open. 😮 Director John Carpenter was flying high after the unexpected recent success of both Halloween and Escape From New York (wow was he on a run at this time!) but THIS was something arguably even grimmer or more nihilistic than either of those films....both of which at least featured their protagonists triumphing at the end, even under questionable circumstances. The Thing is just not a crowd-pleaser nor was it ever meant to be. Hell I had the privilege of seeing it in a surprisingly packed theater for its recent limited Fathom Events re-release....like myself, the rest of the audience seemed pretty pumped to finally be able to see this on the big screen. And we all seemed to enjoy it, even laughing at the right places....but no applause, no repeating of iconic lines, just mostly quiet admiration. Which is fine because it's just NOT that kind of movie....

Carpenter (along with screenwriter Bill Lancaster) crafted a somewhat claustrophobic (except for the wide spaces of snow outdoors which STILL don't seem particularly inviting) chamber piece with a dark heart at its core. This is a story focused on paranoia and distrust. You have one group of about a dozen men who are isolated together in the Tundra, working for a scientific research team - we basically witness the complete breakdown of this team (and the deaths of most of them) over 90 minutes. And it's all the result of a foreign element which first comes in the form of a friendly dog which eventually metamorphicizes into....something else, actually SEVERAL different something elses. :o This foreign element is of course THE eponymous THING and as one character early on describes it: 

"I don't know what's in there....it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is!" 

Indeed it is thanks to some VERY groundbreaking practical creature effects from young (at the time) FX wizard Rob Bottin. The comparisons to Alien were apt but in a good way: the transformations we watch take place as this thing grotesquely attempts to take over the form of its victims as it...."ABSORBS" them....it feels like the next logical extension from the chest-burster and face-hugger of Ridley Scott's 1979 classic. Carpenter (with a HUGE assist from Bottin) is showing us a creature that doesn't JUST penetrate its victims, it then turns them inside out! 😭

It crazy, unnerving stuff to watch and gratefully, it rarely feels gratuitous as Carpenter is smart enough to keep some of the gore at bay...never lingering too long or obscuring much of it in shadow. All the while...truly focusing on this set of characters and how each of them are reacting to some WILD shit that's happening to several folks around them. It becomes increasingly difficult for this group to trust each other as this alien life form MIGHT be inhabiting and/or imitating them at any given time. This all leads to what I believe is this film's TRUE standout sequence….which I’ll get to a bit later…..

Of course, The Thing is also a great showcase for the top-flight cast of grizzled actors surrounding Russell who is just fantastic playing a sorta-protaganist who MIGHT not be as brave or competent as he seems. 🤔 We've got the beautiful Keith David playing the defiant Childs who's often going toe-to-toe with Russell's Macready.....the always winning Richard Dysart playing the compassionate Dr. Copper just a few years before he would end up being one of my favorites among the cast of TV drama "LA Law." (That show had SUCH a great cast by the way....Jimmy Smits, Harry Hamlin, Susan Dey...) 

There's veteran "That Guy" Charles Hallahan playing Norris who apparently was a VERY patient fellow on set allowing his likeness to be utilized in various ways by the visiting alien while being clamped down in a box for more than twelve hours for that standout "chest-biting" sequence! 😮 Too many others to mention but I can't leave out The Brimster - A. Wilford Brimley - playing Blair, The Smartest Guy in the Room in this scenario who apparently just realizes it all too late to be able to do anything besides throwing more monkey wrenches in every one else's efforts to defeat this.....THING. He's worth watching just for the matter-of-fact hangdog facial expressions we see from as he's figuring out the utter grimness of this situation for all involved.

And SPEAKING of grimness, that of course brings us to the now legendary ending....which I find to be perfect but apparently pissed off audiences to no end, it's no wonder this film flopped from the get-go in June of 1982. Funnily enough, I actually think audiences TODAY would be more accepting of the way this film concludes....but a popcorn crowd in the '80's just wasn't having it. 🤫 Consider me SO grateful that Carpenter stuck to his guns on this one - you just can't have 100 minutes showing humans figuratively "eating each other" out of fear and isolation...to just smack a triumphant ending on it.  Strangely enough, I personally STILL find that spare two-men-and-a-fire scene to very satisfying despite the ambiguous note that it leaves this story on.

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

Of course, one key aspect of what makes The Thing such an effective thriller is the now legendary synth score from the late great Ennio Morricone – his main theme for this film is spare but effective.  It’s mainly synthesizer with some strings added in for good measure resulting in a sound that actually seems to pulsate at times, sounding both engrossing and kind of unnatural.  We basically hear five notes repeated in a manner not that dissimilar from the Jaws theme – and like with Jaws, we KNOW that things are getting tense when those notes start to kick in. (Audio clip)   

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film): 

No talent was wasted in the making of this movie but I would like to give a special shoutout to an animal performer whose contributions to this film’s first half and setting up the story are invaluable.  And that would be Jed who plays the Norwegian wolfdog first making his appearance during the opening scene of the movie…..being chased by a helicopter shooting at him as he runs towards the compound of our main characters.  Seriously as dog performances go, Jed’s work is truly impressive as he convinces the audience that he is in fact this alien life form PRETENDING to be a dog – every movement of his is deliberate from the way he stares down those other dogs in the kennel in an utterly terrifying matter to one key moment early one when we see him EERILY staring out the window at the return of Macready and Copper from checking out the Norwegian base where he came from.  You can seriously see the wheels turning as this “thing” disguised as a dog is plotting his next move….and then we watch as this dog just gradually ingratiates himself with most of the crew, setting up the chaos that will follow. (Audio clip) 

No joke, it’s so impressive that you just have to take notice!  Jed was actually a Vancouver Island wolf-Alaskan Malamute hybrid who also go on to co-star in a few other movies including both White Fang films before passing away in 1995.

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie): 

Macready, the helicopter pilot played by Kurt Russell (pulling off the mullet/beard combo like NOBODY'S business) becomes the de facto leader at some point....though it's not because he has earned every one else's trust nor even really knows what he's doing. 🤫 He's just the brashest of the bunch and seems to be the best at handling weapons whether they be flame throwers or even sticks of dynamite - Macready has intimidated every one else to the point where he he's able to rope them ALL (himself included) into taking a "test" where they each donate a blood sample which will then be set ablaze with a blowtorch to see how it reacts....actually to see IF it will react since that would occur only if The Thing is inhabiting that person. :o 

As each member of the crew has their blood tested with the squeaking sound of metal wire heated up from a blow torch hitting a petry dish of their blood, the tension just ratchets up higher and higher! And it's all shot crisply by MASTER DP Dean Cundey who was just in the middle of ONE hell of a run shooting big-time blockbusters including Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Halloween, Apollo 13, and....one of my personal favorites....Roadhouse. ;) The camera takes us between close-ups of the blood to agonizing close-ups of each character's face as they're waiting on the results.....just a MASTERCLASS sequence of suspense! It eventually escalates with another demonstration of gruesomely effective violence and actually culminates with what I consider to be one of THE great tension-breaking lines EVER coming from the late, great character actor Donald Moffat playing Garry: 

"I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!"  (Audio clip) 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film): 

As I have said previously Rob Bottin’s creature effects are a TRUE standout for this movie – you have this amorphous creature who can literally transform from anything, it’s quite an impressive thing to see especially using technology that is more than forty years old.  I mean he was using EVERYTHING possible from jello to bubble gum to eerily realistic-looking prosthetics.  For me, the standout effect STILL has to be the image of Norris’ head upside down actually sprouting two insect legs and just trying to….skulk away resulting in what is likely the SECOND funniest line of the movie:

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” (Audio clip) 

And this being his first movie at the age of 22, it’s just all the more impressive that he was able to pull off such an undertaking…..apparently he was even hospitalized at one point due to sheer exhaustion for all of the excess hours he was taking to work and re-work various intricate effects on-set.  Bottin and crew WERE nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar only to lose to ET that year – in my opinion, he should have won.

However he will have to share this award with the director, genre master John Carpenter.  How he takes such an outlandish sci fi concept and genuinely grounds it by collaborating with the best in the business (Cundey, Morricone, that cast) towards crafting SUCH a compelling paranoia thriller within such a spare setting….it’s why he is now looked upon as one of the masters.  In lesser hands, this film could have been a full-on gorefest lumped in with so many others at the time….but the fact that what SO many folks (myself included) still recall about this film decades later can be exchanges of dialogue or impressive camera shots of an empty hallway demonstrates how this is truly the work of some one using all tools at his disposal towards crafting a memorable story.  The effects ENHANCE this film but they’re only part of the full package – as a result, Bottin and Carpenter are Co-MVP’s.  (Audio Clip)

Final Rating: 5 stars out of 5 

Admittedly I was somewhat late to the party as I did not actually see this movie until about ten years ago on cable but SINCE then, it has remained one of my favorite all-time horror movies.  And among Carpenter’s filmography, I would firmly rank it #1, just a bit above Assault on Precinct 13 and They Live.

Streaming on Peacock TV and currently playing in theaters

And that ends another ABSORBING review