One of a kind

Rating: 10/10 (18 March 2011)

The Thing is not only the undisputed best sci-fi horror movie of all time, even topping Alien and Aliens, but probably one of the best movies ever made regardless the genre. Different genres make different movies and generate different emotions, of course, but this movie totally succeeds in evoking a lot of feelings, and doing everything right. It is truly a work of art – and I am not even talking about effects alone; they are still top notch today, simply incredible for 1982. The Casting is great; all characters are played well and they are all individuals, both fitting the profile of the person you would expect to work in remote areas, as well as making it convincing anyone could later be one of those Things also. Because the people in the movie are all so different, and yet all so human and convincing, it is as if you see the story unfold through your own eyes. This distance of observer to the subject is what great art can keep at bay, and this movie excels in it. All through the end the film stays utterly unpredictable, since almost never we get to know more than the guys in the movie. Therefore, again, it feels like we are there ourselves, cleverly creating a bond between us and the humans in the movie. We never know who is who, who will make it and who won't. But we all hope 'we' make it in the end. Just as in the people struggling for survival in the Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, we feel the sense of loss as the movie progresses and mankind is slowly but surely taken over; the powers and knowledge of the Alien power might be infinitely bigger than ours and its superiority is maybe meant to survive us, but what it lacks is of course emotion, feelings, all that makes humans to special and worth fighting for. The Thing also excels in storytelling. Take the beginning. Action and setting plus players straight away, the landscape of the Arctic, the eerie pulsating beat of the GREAT soundtrack (also 10/10, you just feel the gloomy future on mankind if the Thing gets into civilized areas), a helicopter chasing a dog, the crew just as us looking at it, thinking: what the Sam Hill? Just as them, we will soon find out. Great art, whether it is a story, a painting or a movie, plays cleverly with our unconscious desires, fears and fantasies. What is shown and not told, is in the Thing just as powerful as what is not shown, but only told, leaving it up to us to fantasize. Instead of showing the inside of the UFO, or how the alien looked like in the ice, we see a distant black and white video of the doomed crew in the snow, as if it was an old Arctic exploration team a hundred years ago. It would be tantalizing to see the UFO from the inside, and the Alien too, but to not do it is the perfect choice of the director, leaving it to our own fantasies to work it out, thus creating suspense. We know the alien is old, came from far away, imitated life on a million planets, is smart, powerful and now it wants us. Even the computer prognosis of 'doc' is creepy: if it reaches civilized areas, entire world copied in around three years. But do we really believe in 'this voodoo nonsense'? (Even the dialogues in the movie are 10 out of 10). We do when we see the character Bennings burnt down, howling, with hands half finished, half human, half the unimaginable monster that is underneath, we know the Thing might indeed truly be amongst us. Of course, in reality it probably taps the subject of humans themselves: we are all capable of love, but also of burning Jews in gas chambers. We have wonderful visions, we can be brave, but we also have nightmares and fears. Not all that is human we are proud of. Together with the big picture, also used in the Bodysnatchers, it is all about society getting violent and less human, no government after Nixon can be trusted, et cetera, further tapping in on paranoia. The Thing is maybe not so different from us, maybe it is already here, after all What this movie DOES show,wow, how magnificent can special effects be? And how unpredictable? The shape shifting of one of them turning into a werewolf cum spider is unforgettable and still terrifying today when I see it. It was lucky CGI wasn't available then, making it all look more organic and realistic than any computer could have made it.
The setting of the story, and the movie, is also great: a closed environment, violent weather outside, a violent unseen creature inside: suspense guaranteed. But to keep it from sagging, the story even succeeds changing in the end, when the Thing realizes it has no way out of there, and wants to freeze again, waiting for a possible rescue team to pick it up. It is then not anymore about who is who, but a race against the elements: who will be the last to die? If it is the Thing, mankind will be doomed in the future. In a grand finale we see the whole combined shapes into one monster creature, an idea taken over by James Cameron in the end of Terminator. So when the last remaining character suddenly appears and asks Kurt Russell 'did you kill it?', we know he did, or did he? Perfect dialogue again, indirect, since Kurt Russell replies: where were you? Well, he got lost in the storm and so it is the end, creepy and eerie to the last second: 'how do we make it?' 'Maybe we shouldn't?' Not only a 10 out of 10, but one in a million!