Commendable science fiction which works well until you place it under close scrutiny - whereupon the faults become all too clear.

Rating: 6/10 (27 June 2004)

Based on the famous short story Who Goes There? (which was previously filmed as The Thing From Another World), this 1982 version of The Thing is an exciting and fairly gruesome slice of science fiction. It has its fair share of shortcomings, which I will mention later, but on the whole this is a commendable film.
A bunch of US researchers at a secluded Antarctic base rescue a stray dog. Little do they realise that the dog's body has been inhabited by a deadly alien organism which can take the shape of its victims so that no-one knows it is there. Seems that some Norweigan scientists at a nearby base unearthed the murderous extra terrestrial from the ice, where it had laid frozen for hundreds of thousands of years. Pretty soon, the guys in the American research team are being infected by "The Thing" one by one.... but how can they tell who is who when it can imitate any one of them with such accuracy?
The Antarctic setting complements the suspense perfectly. The isolation of a scientific station in the middle of nowhere is an ideal metaphor for the fearful isolation that each character experiences, miles from help and surrounded by other characters who may or may not be what they seem. Rob Bottin's make-up effects and Albert Whitlock's visual effects are memorably (and intentionally) unpleasant. And some performances, notably Kurt Russell as the suicidal hero, are absolutely spot-on. As I touched upon earlier, the film has a few shortcomings. There is never a satisfactory explanation as to how the alien actually infects its victims, and some moments near the end seem illogical (e.g. what's going on with A. Wilford Brimley's character in his last scene, and why does Keith David go running around alone knowing that the alien is on the prowl?) Also there are clumsy goofs - for instance, it is widely-known that Antarctica experiences six months of uninterrupted daylight and six months of uninterrupted darkness, so how come day and night occur on a daily basis in this film? The film is best enjoyed as an exercise in suspense and a show-stopping display of innovative special effects, but if you start to unpick the plot in closer detail the holes begin to show.