Perhaps the greatest sci-fi horror of all time

Rating: 10/10 (4 November 2012)

How great is The Thing? Up there with 'Alien' and 'The Fly' as the greatest sci-fi horror ever (interesting that The Fly is also a remake of an earlier film).
Ironically John Carpenter says that what attracted him to the story was that it wasn't about another group of dumb teenagers getting sliced up by some psycho when he practically invented that genre with Halloween. But he's right, all the characters in The Thing are capable, intelligent men faced with an unbelievable situation and dealing with it pretty admirably. Good things abound in this film, the special effects are terrific and still stand up after 30 years. The plotting is great, we're still debating aspects of the film to this day, you see something new every time you watch it. Set pieces such as the scene with the dogs, the defibrillator sequence and the blood test scene are simply marvellous. The dialogue is terrific; Garry's rant on the couch just pipping Palmer's incongruous spotting of Norris' head scuttling away. Also fond of Clark upon discovering The Thing attacking his dogs "I don't know what's in there but it's weird and p*ssed off!" Fantastic soundtrack too, amazed that John Carpenter didn't do the music himself because Enrico does a great job, full of foreboding and tension. Good acting especially given the fantastical nature of what they're reacting to. Very little bad although it does seem a little trite that The Thing turns up in the one place on Earth where you'd reasonably expect people to have flamethrowers handy but you forgive it.
So what happens in the end? Personally I figure neither Mac nor Childs is The Thing (especially given the earring revelation of the 2011 film) and either a military helicopter turns up or Kate from the 2011 film arrives in her snow cat to take them to safety. But who knows what other secrets the spaceship contains? I'd love to see a scene where they are able to contain someone infected with The Thing and ask it what it actually wants? To conquer the world, to go home or is it some sort of interplanetary explorer which is taking samples in order to understand our world? All told John Carpenter at his finest