John Carpenter makes a classic sci-fi movie even better!

Rating: 10/10 (19 March 2000)

Who knew in 1978 when we saw 1951's "The Thing" on a TV set in John Carpenter's "Halloween" that he would be remaking it 4 years later? "The Thing" was the last film in Carpenter's succession of theatrical hits ("Assault on Precinct 13", "Halloween", "Escape from New York", "The Fog", "Halloween II"). Since then, Carpenter has only gotten worse, with his newest release "Vampires" sucking REAL bad. But here, you see Carpenter at his peak, working in a claustrophobic isolated environment with a hopeless situation. The best thing about the movie are the special effects by Rob Bottin, who had done an excellent job with "The Howling" a year earlier. The movie takes no time kicking into gear, with a graphic dog mutation setting the standard for what to expect in the next few hours. The highlight of the film is a soldier's head slipping away from his body and mutating into a spider!!! Now that the film has been re-released on video and DVD in a gorgeous widescreen print with long-lost footage, a whole new generation can enjoy the terror that is "John Carpenter's The Thing"!