The most effective practical effects ever put to film

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2019)

Simply put, John Carpenter's ''The Thing'' is my number one movie of all time, and the creature feature benchmark that I compare all others to. It is one of those movies where, no matter how many times I watch it, there is never a single thing I would want to have been done differently.
From the score, to the cast, to the practical effects - which I consider to still be the most effective ever put to film - The Thing is a masterpiece of horror cinema, and one which proves that a B-Movie concept can spar with the greatest movies of all time when it is carried out with the respect and love that it deserves.
And The Thing is a movie which I personally believe achieves something which very few horror films ever have, particularly monster movies: It is crafted and filmed with such a level of respect, that it moves beyond the realm of simply scary or disturbing imagery, and into the realm of presenting the audience with something so indescribably alien, and so transfixingly different to anything seen before it, that you simply cannot look away. This is something which continues to inspire my own work, wherein I always aim to present my audience with a monster worth looking at and imagining. After all, if a movie doesn't treat its monster with effort and respect - why should the audience?