One of the greatest Horror movies ever made

Rating: 9/10 (23 October 2011)

John Carpenter's The Thing is one of the greatest Horror movies ever made. This little seen masterpiece is often credited as being a brilliant grotesque piece of cinema, and their not wrong there. A remake of the 1951 Howard Hawks original The Thing from another World is often said to be a more closer adaptation of the short story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr. The plot for those who do not know is: a parasitic extraterrestrial life-form that assimilates other organisms and in turn imitates them. It infiltrates an Antarctic research station, taking the appearance of the researchers that it kills, and paranoia occurs within the group. Sounds pretty interesting doesn't it? The Thing is classified as a science fiction horror film, I would consider it to be Slasher film also. To tell you the truth, I couldn't find a single thing wrong with The Thing, its pretty much flawless film. Let me start off by saying that the cast is amazing, the acting is brilliant. Kurt Russell was born to play the role of our assumed hero R.J MacReady. Wilford Brimley and Keith Davids are also great as Dr Blair and Childs. The mixture of paranoia and tension between the characters is brilliant. A fun fact about The Thing is that its an all male cast, presumably John Carpenter wanted it to be more realistic. Let me just say that the special effects and creature effects by Rob Bottin are just simply outstanding, probably the best use of grotesque effects ever put into film, there just simply jaw dropping its hard to believe. Originally released in 1982 The Thing did poorly at the box office and was panned by critics, much because of the release of E.T, a movie that focused on a more friendly theme of Alien life form on earth. I could go on for ages on how The Thing is such a great movie, but I want to keep this review short so, If you haven't seen The Thing before then rent or buy it, because if your a horror fan, this deserves to be on everyone's DVD/blu ray shelf.