Excellent update

Rating: 8/10 (21 April 2011)

John Carpenter takes Howard Hawks seminal science fiction tale about the remote polar research station beset by an alien invasion (by which I mean invasion by an alien) and updates it from the 50s to the 80s - in colour, some genuinely low temperatures, and some state of the art mechanical effects rather than James Arness in a rubber carrot costume.
It's pretty good. The sense of claustrophobia and paranoia is well generated and maintained, the performances are all good (and Kurt Russell is an excellent lead), and the effects are imaginative, shocking, and extremely well executed.
Remakes often fall short of the originals: this one surpasses its predecessor by a clear margin.