Still crazy after all these years

Rating: Null/10 (21 October 2002)

Imagine a monster that could absorb and replicate you entirely, not just your organic form but your mind as well. It can reproduce your behaviour so perfectly that your friends won't know the difference. Now, imagine that this particular monster has been around the universe for a time unknown. It's sole purpose is to survive, and for that it has absorbed beings from all over, hiding and attacking when threatened. Not only is it able to absorb living creatures, it is able to morph into all of them, or mix them together to become as deadly as it possibly can.
Now, remember that this monster doesn't just absorb the body, it also absorbs the mind of it's victim. By doing that, it is a growing mixture of different psychologies, with their instabilities, their fears, their hatred. So, it's not just a physical monster, but an insane one as well.
John Carpenter's The Thing is a fantastic movie, where horror and insanity walk hand in hand in a tragic descent into hell. Twenty years after it's making, it still stands out of the crowd as one of the freakiest horror movies ever made. Surprisingly, the old fashioned visual effects benefit the film, by giving it a different kind of realism that we're just not used to see anymore. Not a computer generated well trimmed look, but a crude and visceral style that really gets in your head.
Undeniably, still crazy after all these years.