A true masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (2 January 2008)

The Thing is in my humble opinion maybe the greatest of all of Carpenter's films. It's great on so many levels, I'm having trouble deciding what I will start with.
All right, first of all, the story is great. We follow a group of researchers, on expedition in Antarctica, far away from civilization. The thought of being helpless in freezing cold conditions without the chance of getting any help is disturbing enough. And as an extra layer of complexity, we have the paranoia and mind-bending element of who-can-I-trust?. Since the group is faced with a never-before seen threat that spreads like a virus no-one knows what to do or who to trust. And the longer times go, and the more of the crew gets tainted by the alien, the more the paranoia grows.
I think essentially why I love this movie so much is because I always try and imagine myself in their situation. Would I panic? Would I turn into MacReady or would I become "the thing"? I get goose bumps just thinking about it.
The score, for once not made by John Carpenter, is really really good. We usually hear Ennio Morricone's music in western movies, but he has done a tremendous job with the music to The Thing. Since the music is so essential to the feeling of a certain film, the composer has a crucial task upon him. Morricone made it with brilliance and finesse, and the mood of the picture hits you right at the first credits. Awesome!
So the special effects might not be comparable with todays CGI technology. That doesn't matter, really, in my opinion. It's not only the realism in monsters that decide how good the scares are in all horror movies. Really good horror movies can always depend on the mood setting, the story and the (un)expectation from the viewer. And those things are all as good as they can be in The Thing. Also, the effects aren't bad to begin with, I just wanted to prove a point.
The ending is fantastic. MacReady does the right thing, and ends the film being a hero. He knew his life (or any other's) couldn't be saved, but instead of crawling into a corner and cry like a little baby he did the only right thing. He went out and put an end to the whole thing by blowing up the place, leaving nothing but the bister winter to keep him company (and Childs who cared to show up some explosions too late). When the end credits roll I'm really impressed by this movie. It has me captured frame-by-frame all through the runtime every time I see it.
The Thing undoubtedly has an important quality -- it makes you think and it makes you involved, and it makes you want to watch compellingly all the way to the end.