Man is the warmest place to hide.

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2011)

Among the many sci-fi horror films to be released in the wake of Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing and John McTiernan's more action-oriented Predator (aswell as James Cameron's Aliens) were the only ones that have really achieved classic status. The Thing was initially a critical and commercial failure (many factors have been blamed, from the gory effects work, its release in the wake of the more happy E.T.), but it did not take long for critics and audiences to finally come round and see what a fantastic movie it really is.
Closer to the short story Who Goes There? by John W Campbell Jr, than its previous cinematic incarnation, the 1951 classic The Thing From Another World, this presents a harrowing story of a group of isolated individuals who find themselves locked in a desperate struggle against a terrifying alien lifeform that has the ability to absorb and imitate its victims, and whose very existence threatens the human race. The protagonists, including a terrific Kurt Russell, find themselves battling the creature and its growing number of human impersonators, with the battle taking some interesting turns. Besides the personal battles, with flamethrowers at the ready when a human reveals his true nature, the creature often tries to throw a spanner in the works by playing off on their paranoia, making them mistrust each other, even setting up characters to make others think they're imitations.
When the imitations reveal their alien nature, we are presented with some still-awe-inspiring special effects, both highly imaginative and bizarrely grotesque. The creature alters bone structure and ruptures skin during its transformations, providing some truly horrifying and iconic imagery.
Ennio Morricone's creepy doom-laden score fits the film well (how it came to be nominated for a Razzie is bewildering). The cast are all excellent, direction is perfect, here's a film where everything fits perfectly. Bonus points for a brilliantly ambiguous ending (thankfully a planned "happy ending" was dropped).