One of Carpenter's best films and one of the best horror movies ever.

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 2005)

When John Carpenter's The Thing was released in 1982 its monster was the most revolting ever put on film. More than 20 years later it's not as shocking, but it's still pretty gross. It's certainly not tame like James Arness' original Thing in the 1951 original.
This movie has little relation to the original The Thing (1951.) Instead, Bill Lancaster's script follows the idea of the original short story, John Campbell's "Who Goes There?" John Carpenter follows in the traditional of Howard Hawks who produced the original Thing and is one of Carpenter's idols. Once again Carpenter shows that he can put all of his budget on the screen. He makes a movie that looks many times more than its real budget. This film has high production values. Ennio Morricone's score is perfectly creepy. The sets are claustrophobic.
As in the original, the acting is top notch. For a horror film, where characters are usually nothing more than fodder for the monster, each character in this film has a distinct personality. Kurt Russell is perfect as the hero RJ MacReady. Wilford Brimley is great as Dr. Blair. Richard Masur is the scruffy, antisocial dog handler. The rest of the cast is also excellent.
The star of the movie is Rob Bottin's Thing. The Thing is flat-out nasty. Maybe this Thing is a modern metaphor for cancer as it infects the crew. It changes shapes every time it appears so you never know what to expect.
One of Carpenter's best films and one of the best horror movies ever.