John Carpenter's The Thing(1982)

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2016)

John Carpenter's The Thing, is a film about an ice station research team in the Antarctic during the first week of Winter. The film opens with a Dog being chased by a Norwegian Helicopter pilot and a passenger shooting at it. After accidentally blowing up the helicopter, the last surviving Norwegian begins to follow the dog into the American base until the dog is saved by the American group, who believe the Norwegian team have gone crazy. Upon being moved into the kennel, the dog begins to mutate into a disturbing creature that attacks the other dogs. We soon find out that this 'dog' is in-fact an Alien that has the ability to change it's appearance of anyone it assimilates.
As the Alien begins wreck havoc amongst the crew this leaves us with a group of characters unable to trust each other. As they are being picked off one by one, and replaced by the Thing. When the group begins to learn that this creature is of Alien origin the doubt and mistrust begins to further set in. The group is lead by McCready(Kurt Russell), who takes charge of the situation. His unwillingness to let the Thing go free, and suspicion towards the group begins to breed mistrust and paranoia. Whilst on the other hand the group aren't sure whether he could be the Thing, and trying to deliberately fracture the group.
The film is directed by John Carpenter and was his first big studio film after having previous critical and commercial success with Halloween(1978), and Escape From New York(1981). The film ended up doing badly at the box office not even making it's budget back. The film also received critical backlash, which wasn't aided at the time by going up against Steven Spielberg's family friendly E.T.
Carpenter directs this film with expert craftsmanship, the film is incredibly well shot, with scenes that are genuinely horrific and scary. It's also helped by the cinematography of long time collaborator Dean Cundey(Halloween). The film is shot on location which gives the filman authentic isolated setting. This exacerbates the film sense of dread and paranoia which seeps through the film, from the opening shot too it's hauntingly ambiguous ending.
The film should also be praised for it's excellent use practical effects, that still hold up incredibly well today. Carpenter and his team create some of the most disturbing creature designs in cinema history. The score by Ennio Morricone is brooding and filled with tension that adds another layer of depth to the film.
John Carpenter's The Thing Is a stripped down thrill ride that pulls no punches. It asks us to keep our eyes open at all times for even the slightest clue as to who may or may not be The Thing. It's also a film filled With characters that we genuinely care about, they're fleshed out and have fully developed personalities. Something which Horror films have forgotten to do in the last decade. The Thing is a film that will be remembered as a classic in the Horror genre for decades to come.