Still squirm-inducing 29 years on

Rating: 10/10 (9 December 2011)

Isolation. Paranoia. Fear.
These are the typical key words used to describe John Carpenter's sci-fi fright-fest 'The Thing'.
The standard plot synopsis normally reads; Antartic research team terrorised by shape-shifting alien.
What's not so easy to convey is the sense of unease that permeates throughout the movie, from the opening scenes of arctic desolation and that menacing bass-thrum, to the unsettling and downbeat ending.
This is genuine, stomach-curdling sci-fi-horror, which effectively translates an ever-escalating sense of fear for the characters amidst the claustrophobic settings of the research base.
Little needs to be said of the well-documented special effects, which may still be considered a bar for non-CGI creation, and where acting and pacing are concerned, not a foot is wrongly placed.
It's not without some consideration that I award this film a top score, for even today, having watched it recently, I'm still gripped by the taut atmosphere that veins the whole movie.
I can think of no other film that inspires such a sense of foreboding or menace, and very few that deliver on such sudden bursts of visceral bloodshed and outright horror.
A true classic for anyone with an interest in being scared.