John Carpenter's Best Film, At Least Critically

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2007)

In Antarctica, there is a science station where Americans run experiments... but more often than not just get drunk. One day, a dog and a group of Norwegians shows up... and thanks to poor translation skills, the Norwegian is killed. Soon after, a horrible fate in unleashed upon the American station... one by one the crew become suspects in a very heinous string of murders. Who is the killer or killers?
I like many -- perhaps most -- of John Carpenter's films. The original "Halloween" and "They Live" are amazing. Pretty much the bulk of his work pleases me (with a few exceptions). And "The Thing" is among his best, which both fans and critics alike seem to agree on. You are working with horror, which Carpenter excels at... and you are working with isolation fighting against an outside enemy (which we have seen in "Assault in Precinct 13", "Pro-Life" and elsewhere). And we have the ideal Carpenter cast: Kurt Russell as R.J. MacReady, Wilford "The Beetis" Brimley as Dr. Blair and Keith David as Childs.
This also brings Carpenter and Dean Cundey together again. Cundey has said, "John and Halloween really kicked off my career." This was their fourth film together, but their first big studio (Universal) production. It was truly a passion project for Carpenter, who idolizes Howard Hawks. The Hawks version of "The Thing" appeared in "Halloween", "Assault on Precinct 13" was more or less a Hawks remake, and now he had the opportunity to tackle this. And wow, they did a bang up job, surpassing the original (though the two are different enough that they can both be appreciated in their own ways).
The suspense and isolation work to bring the film to a crescendo of horror perfection. And science fiction fans will love it, too (the border between the two is danced upon quite heavily). But what really makes this film the masterpiece it is -- and what will make it never remakeable -- is the special effects. If you have read enough of my reviews, you will know my strong dislike for modern CGI effects and their "cartoon" quality. Here, we have a prime example of what I would rather see in a film: good, old-fashioned effects. More realistic than the cartoons and just visually stunning. I have no idea why they started doing things differently, but every film since "Jurassic Park" has let me down in some way. Rob Bottin is quite possibly the greatest effects master in cinema history.
My one concern with this film, and it is very minor, is that the characters are not easy to keep straight sometimes. This goes away with repeated viewings, but aside from the main characters, the secondary characters just seem to blend together. One guy looks sort of like another, and trying to keep the names straight will take a little focus. Some of them do not appear on screen for more than five minutes or have more than a line or two of dialog, it seems. But what good is a killer if you do not have people to kill?
Beyond that, what to say? Keith David and Kurt Russell? That does not sell you? Adrienne Barbeau as the computer voice? A dog that kills people with its tentacles? Even the Internet Movie Database seems to think this is one of the best films ever made (well within the top 200) so I am going to go so far as to recommend it to non-horror fans as well. There is just something very tight about this film.
Appropriately, Scream! Factory has pulled all the stops and released the film as a double-disc Blu-ray. With a 2K scan, it looks better than ever. We have commentary tracks with Kurt Russell, John Carpenter and Dean Cundey. And plenty of interviews, both new and vintage. If there is not already a book about the making of "The Thing", someone could probably develop one based solely off the material on the set. It is, without a doubt, the must-have Blu-ray of 2016.