My 2000th IMDb review:Tribute to Guy Morgan:His favourite film of all time.

Rating: 10/10 (21 July 2019)

When DVD's were starting to take off in the late 90's, a close family friend called Guy Morgan told me that he had picked up The Thing DVD a year before he got a player,in order for it to be the first DVD he'd watch. Whilst Guy introduced me and my family to countless other great films over the years,he mentioned that The Thing was still his all-time favourite film.
In early March 2019,Guy suddenly passed away at age 46. Wanting to pay a lasting online tribute,I decided that my IMDb reviews 1996-2000 would be reviews of his top films,which led to this 2000th review being of Guy's favourite film.
View on the film:
Iced out with a new 4K restoration, Arrow present an incredible transfer, where the finely balanced soundtrack and glittering restored image are joined by extensive extras.
Proving the third time to be the charm, Kurt Russell reunites with his friend and gives an incredibly subtle, brooding performance, gradually building on MacReady's isolation in withdrawn, back to the wall body language, raging with fear over who is the thing. In the middle of nowhere from anywhere else in the world, the rest of the cast give outstanding performances as the fellow research scientists,with Keith David as the ambiguous Childs and Richard Dysart as the fearful Dr. Copper being two of the highlights of the cast.
Being the first "outside" composer for the director,and ending up with a "Razzie" nomination for his work,Ennio Morricone drills a utterly chilling, low-key score,pressing on the loner state of the team with shards of the score casting cracks across the ice. Continuing to build on the visual themes that run across his work, directing auteur John Carpenter reunites with cinematographer Dean Cundey and masterfully expands on their distinctive dolly shots, in the long, slow wide-shot dollys down corridors with a single figure or shadow haunting the location. Tangling the research scientists in Rob Bottin's spectacular,otherworldly practical monster effects, Carpenter and Cundey continue to build on their themes for contrasting appearances for the outside/inside locations, as the inside horror of a blood red monster and the dripping with tension wide group-shots being stabbed in the merciless outdoors of the low-lighting miles of snow in the wilderness.
The first feature film by Carpenter that he did not write himself, the screenplay by Bill (son of Burt) Lancaster impressively continues to expand on Carpenter's theme of "The Shape", thanks to not giving the monster any dialogue (or dry exposition),and instead focusing on characters attempt to survive the unrelenting onslaught of The Shape. Not featuring a single woman in the film or in the crew, Lancaster makes this isolation of masculinity one which is fuelled on fear and mistrust, exploding in MacReady holding back from making a true attachment to any of his fellow scientists, leaving him shaking with a nihilistic fear over being left in doubt over if he has confronted all of the thing.