In Carpenter's Masterpiece, 'Thing's Truly are Seldom What They Seem!

Rating: 9/10 (29 March 2015)

John Carpenter's The Thing is one of those beloved relics of the '80s that was considered a game-changer for creature-features. Viewing the movie thirty years removed from that era, the ideas it presents remain as alarming as ever; this is not a thriller in which ordinary beasts seek to destroy a gathering of unsuspecting victims, but one in which they take on the traits of earthly organisms and walk among them as part of a convincing ruse to adapt to a new foreign environment.
Ominously bland shots of the Antarctic profile introduce us to R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell), a pilot with an American research crew who, along with a gathering of other morose men, is about to be involved in one hell of a tricky predicament. The marvelously disconcerting prologue suggests so, of course, as a handsome Alaskan malamute (with a little more sobriety than typically seen in dogs) gallops across the Antarctic tundra, a nearby helicopter full of eager Norwegians pursues it, hoping to shoot the animal dead in its tracks. That grim pursuit takes them right into the base of the American researchers, who respond with confounding resistance. An explosion and an assassination later, the American crew takes the dog in, only to discover too late that appearances can be deceptive. It turns out that the dog is indeed the alien creature that has assumed the guise of a dog. It soon proceeds to infiltrate the unsuspecting crew members of the camp, and the good guys try to figure out which of them may have been compromised.
Throughout the course of the movie, a lot of terrible things happen to this ensemble of characters while the monster in its fuzzy new form snuggles up to its fresh banquet of victims. What it does is the unthinkable: consume people and then essentially take on their characteristics, allowing them to move undetected amongst others. When this knowledge is shared with the scientists, ensuing hysteria overwhelms their need for survival, and inevitably the movie becomes a cat-and-mouse game in which it's not just about how to destroy the fiend, but where to find it and who to trust among the ensemble of wary survivors.
Carpenter's thriller is a masterful exercise in claustrophobic suspense, far superior to other sloppy efforts that have saturated the market with a relentless supply of bloodthirsty monsters jumping out from the shadows: a peerless masterpiece of retina-wrecking visuals (with remarkable special effects). Carpenter capitalizes on the dramatic possibilities inherent in the contrast between the cramped interiors of the station and the vast expanse of the wintry landscape outside. He uses this disparity to amazing effect to create an atmosphere of testosterone-fueled paranoia. The strong cast brings the somewhat underwritten characters to vivid life.
Though are eyes are horrified and our hearts often unsettled, we watch on as if hypnotized by an unfolding nightmare from which there is no turning away!