They don't make em' like this anymore

Rating: 10/10 (3 February 2006)

I was never a John Carpenter fanatic before seeing The Thing. That is probably why it took me until last week to see it for the first time. Sure I think Halloween and Escape From New York are classics but he's always been a director that has as many misses as he's had hits in his career.
The Thing is as close to perfection as any movie I've even seen. Start right at the end, I love the fact that it has a apocalyptic ending where we assume the two survivors are going to die. It is also very open ended and open to interpretation. Did The Thing really get destroyed? Is Childs really still human or is he part of The Thing? The way this ends is in stark contrast to most Hollywood movies that feel the need to have a happy ending and tie up all the loose ends. I had the benefit of watching the Special Edition DVD which includes an approximately 90 minute documentary with tons of great facts about the production and interviews with everyone that was anyone on this production. The documentary revealed that they actually shot an alternate ending that shows that Kurt Russell's character MacReady made it out of Antarctica and survived the whole ordeal. Luckily that ending has never seen the light of day.
More then a monster movie, this is a movie about isolation and paranoia. This is about a group of men, living in close quarters without any female elements. That group dynamic adds a lot of interesting elements to the emotional side of the story.
If for some reason you've never seen this movie....go see it now! And get the Special Edition DVD for the documentary. Even if you have seen the movie, get your hands on the documentary because it will give you a new insight into the movie and into the genius of John Carpenter as well as the effects team that brought the monsters to life.