Good horror, but flawed. Others may have appreciated the film more, but those are not me. Recommended to fans of thriller, horror and gore movies

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2006)

It all seemed like a normal summer in the Antarctic Mountains, when all of a sudden; a strange man appears in a helicopter, trying to shoot down a dog with a machine gun. The scientists spending their time at the houses in the Antarctic shoot the offender. But, why was he shooting at the dog? Well, apparently some creature was unearthed from the ice (or something like that) and came to terrorize the humans. This is no ordinary creature though. It can change its shape into the victims that it has killed. (Does that make sense?) If it kills somebody, it can look like them, and possibly speak like them! It sounds pretty similar to the villain in Terminator 2: Judgment Day! Well, if you have heard of the monster, than it becomes way too obvious about why the man was shooting at the dog.
But, don't worry. To counter the predictability of the first scene, "John Carpenter's The Thing" brings many moments that are, well not as predictable. These are the good moments. These are also the moments when the audience suspects that one of the people was infected by the creature, and therefore, the audience is subjected to guessing who it is.
While the film is fairly un-predictable, these moments have their flaws. The audience is left guessing whether the person is Childs, Blaire, Clark or somebody else. This would be nice if we actually knew who they were! The characters hardly stand out from one another, and there are just way too many of them! How is the audience supposed to follow? This leads to confusion, which also makes the film less enjoyable to me. Plus, every moment of thrill is way too short for my enjoyment. This adds to the displeasure as confusion and boredom invade my enjoyment.
But, the moments of thrill, while short, are fun. No, they're not so thrilling that you hold you're breath and refuse to stop watching, but they are pretty fun. After all, it is directed by John Carpenter, who made Halloween and The Fog. If you are a hardcore fan of thriller and horror films, or a hardcore fan of gore films, you should probably pick this one up.
7/10
Good: Thrilling movie, with nice twists here and there.
Bad: Confusion, boredom, short thrills and way too many characters