For Suspense, This Can't Be Beat

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 1999)

The Thing is literally painful to watch at times, much in the way that the original Alien is. You know that pretty much nobody is going to get out alive. The script doesn't even bother to offer the hope of an out - the characters are doomed and they know it. In some ways, that makes it a better movie than Alien: there's no escape pod and little expectation that the beautiful woman will get killed. Like the Alien crew, these people aren't paid to confront the unknown, or really know or care anything about it. It's better than the original, which I never found that interesting anyway.