Number One

Rating: Null/10 (24 August 2000)

It's been 18 years since I first saw John Carpenter's The Thing, and it continues to occupy the top slot in my list of the scariest movies of all time.
There's something primally terrifying about that-which-cannot-be-stopped, and the Antarctic setting conveys a realistic feel of isolation that outstrips the aloneness in all three Aliens films (none of us have ever been to distant space outposts, but we can relate to the icy solitude of a human environment).
Yes, H. R. Geiger's Aliens were mind-numbingly horrific, in their speed and agility and sheer foreignness to everything human; in that regard, they capture the title as best extraterrestrials in film. But though The Thing's creatures are also of alien origin, they fall more neatly--and fulfill completely--the niche of movie monster.
This disturbing film is a classic.