Carpenter's masterpiece of paranoia

Rating: 10/10 (14 May 2006)

Though it didn't attract audience and mostly received bad critics,John Carpenter's The Thing is now considered as a masterpiece about human nature and paranoia.At least,it's a masterpiece to me and it's one of my all time favorites.Carpenter creates a chilling atmosphere which he does best and he focuses on twelve men working in a research station in Antarctica with nowhere to run.When they find an unknown organism,they took it to the station with the hope that they could've made the discovery of the century.But when the frozen organism is thawed out,the trouble begins.From that point,the movie gets very different from it's predecessor which was a Howard Hawks (Carpenter's favorite) production.The thing was a monster in shape in the original film and the crew was fighting against something they could see,but in Carpenter's version,the thing has a deadly weapon;it can imitate any living creature it wants.After they learn the terrifying truth about their guest,the crew loses trust for each other and this keeps the tension always high.Members of the crew fall apart and they begin to accuse each other of being an alien instead of acting like a team.With this masterpiece,Carpenter accomplishes what he always does once again;he scares us to death.While doing this,he also shows what a human being is capable of(lies,mistrust,even murder)and how easy they can forget some basic moral values when they feel they're in danger.Kurt Russell stars as R.J.MacReady;the helicopter pilot who tries to hold the men together in order to fight against the thing and gives one of the greatest performances of his career.The cast also includes some well known character actors like Wilford Brimley,Richard Masur,Keith David (also appeared in Carpenter's They live),Richard Dysart and Donald Moffat.Unlike his other movies,Carpenter didn't compose the music.The music belongs to a legendary composer;Ennio Morricone(you know who he is)and it provides a great support.The movies great special effects were made by Rob Bottin and his work is still remembered as a milestone.
The Thing is a masterpiece from a master film maker and will always remain as one of the scariest movies about human nature.