A perfect horror film, a modern day classic.

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2013)

As we all know, usually remakes can be colossal bombs. Not so, "The Thing." Quite possibly John Carpenter's greatest film, I have watched this fantastic movie at least 50 times to date, largely because most of my friends have never seen it! While working on "Big Trouble in Little China" with the same director, I was prompted to ask him, straight out, why this film seemed to simply fall off the radar, and his answer was short and sweet: "Timing. I had the bad fortune of deciding to release 'Thing' at the same time that Steven Spielberg released "ET." The movie was simply buried under the onslaught of media attention that made ET a worldwide hit. But that fact doesn't undercut the sheer brilliance of this nail biting masterpiece of horror. Starting from the truly inspired casting, to the script, to the incredible monster making, to the cinematography, to even the stark, atmospheric soundtrack by the great Ennio Morricone, 'The Thing' has become the modern benchmark of sci fi/horror films to come, and John Carpenter deserves all the credit. First, the setting. Using an already claustrophobic location of a completely enclosed, totally isolated Arctic science lab outpost, inhabited by all that testosterone, was as an effective a place for a modern day horror flick as the spooky Gothic castle was in the classic of the genre, "Frankenstein," imparting as much of the feeling of dread as the story itself. But quite possibly the greatest plot choice in was in simply leaving the ending open, "and just wait and see what happens." Brilliant.