What a film!!

Rating: 9/10 (1 October 2001)

I first saw this several years ago, I think I was about 12, it scared the hell out of me. Then a couple of weeks ago I saw it in a video shop and had to buy it. 5 years on and its still as scary, as usual the music is dark and atmospheric. Some of the scenery too helps add to the atmosphere and sense of isolation. The opening scene is ingenious, again it helps add to the mysterious atmosphere,then something goes wrong and they realize what the opening scene was about. Its a similar Alien style of letting the alien on board and now The Thing is in the base, thats when it gets exciting (excitinger). The Thing can mimic people and so follows a mixture of paranoia and incredible special effects.The effects are gory, some of them just really make you think "Whats going on in John Carpenters head?" They really are that weird, but then that only adds to the credibility of this alien in that it is so weird and well...Alien. As I have mentioned quite a few times this is a very atmospheric film, the music, the way its directed, the cold, dark, desolate feeling. The Characters too are very good, though MacReady(Russell) and possibly Gary and Blair stand out as some of the more interesting characters. If there is a flaw its possibly in the actual physics of the creature. The Assimilation process seems unclear, there is a vague explanation which having seen several times now still seems unclear. But this is a minor fault and really does no harm overall to the film. The effects at the ending are a real extravaganza, Russell in full Snake mode(escape from L.A./New York) delivers a crisp one liner before finishing off the Thing. I really liked this film, its very atmospheric and dark, the clever twists and turns are real edge of your seat stuff and the effects are incredible.If you want to be scared out of your wits this is definitely for you. The whole alien body snatching theme isn't that original and possibly the actual technical side of the Thing could do with some refining. Overall though a damn good film, a must for any horror fan. I'd say 9/10.