smart, terrifying, and brillant.

Rating: Null/10 (27 April 2001)

I have not seen a movie in a long time that effected me the way The Thing did. it gets under your skin, slowly at first, and it eats you up inside. it can literally transform you into a nervous wreck.
I could only watch the (horrifically violent) scenes in which The Thing actually appears comfortably. this should tell you something of the atmosphere of the rest of the film.
John Carpenter's apocolypic masterpeice opens with a scene that is so incredibly simple but nearly unbearingly unnerving. a dog bounds across a snowy tundra, with a helicopter full of crazed Norweigans in close pursuit. the soundtrack, a simple, rythmic creation throbs heavily in the background. this soundtrack is not heard often in the film; not a single scene is scored in any traditional way. it's rythmic pulse insinuates a heartbeat.
for a cast of 12 characters, all of them are balanced and, more importantly, all of them are validly suspect. I still am not sure as to weather or not Kurt Russel (who amazes here) was a thing or not. the film is abigous; it ends on that same note; and along the way it's a roller coaster so terrifying it makes Carpenter's other best work - Halloween - look tame by comparison.
Rob Bottin's surreallistic creature effects are shown very little; they probably only dominate less than a quater of the screen time and are used very effectivley. all of the effects are the old-fashioned, mechanical-puppet variety, and yet each and every one is so convincing and realistic that they, themselves become fearsome. add that to a deeply, profoundly effecting excercise in what I can only define as psychological tourture and you have a modern science fiction classic. I cannot find a single thing wrong with this film, and trust me, I've tried. just a warning beforehand:
if you should choose to see this movie, know as little about it beforehand as possible and be perpared: this film hits you, and it hits you HARD, and it doesn't stop. this is as effective, smart, errie, and terrifying a film as you'll find anywhere in any genre.
and they say horror isn't an art. it is, ladies and gentlemen, and this film is proof of it. regarded by critcs and fans alike to be a modern classic of every kind, don't miss John Carpenter's Science-Fiction-Horror masterpeice.
man is the warmest place to hide....