The 1951 Original Vs The 1982 Remake

Rating: Null/10 (4 October 1999)

I feel it is appropriate to use John W. Campbell Jr.'s 1938 novella, "Who Goes There?", as a baseline by which to compare the two films that strived to bring it to the screen; that is, "The Thing(From Another World)" released in 1951, and "The Thing" released in 1982. Keep in mind that I consider Campbell's tale one of the best sci-fi horror stories ever written, and that it would be quite a feat to successfully adapt it to cinema. The 1951 film, directed by Christain Nyby, deviated so much from the story that it is difficult to draw many parallels between the two. In the story, the alien is a 4 ft tall being with three red eyes, rubbery,blue,wormlike hair and multiple razor- sharp tentacles. This alien "chameleon" is so intelligent that its species figured out long ago how to imitate any living creature through DNA duplication and replication. This uncanny, insidious imitation extended to the personality and mind of it's victims. The end of the story further highlights its superior intellect by featuring a strap-on anti-gravity device powered by a small atomic generator that it had built within the mere span of one week by scrounging spare parts at the compound - coiled wires, radio tubes, coffee-tins, glass, magnets, leather and cloth belts, etc. The alien was killed before it could make it's escape and eventually imitate the living composition of the entire planet! In the 1951 film version, the alien is portrayed as an 8 ft tall hairless Frankenstein-like humanoid, with flesh of a vegetable- like quality which needed blood to reproduce itself through seedpods. The film is standard horrorfare, with the expedition crew uniting together to fight and destroy the alien menace, which they eventually did, via electrocution. The alien is not characterized as particularly intelligent, rather as a rampaging, blood-thirsty monster; making it hard to imagine such a brute was advanced enough to participate in interstellar travel. So while, "The Thing(From Another World) featured excellent direction, acting, dialogue, score and so forth under the watchful eye of producer/shadow director, Howard Hawks, I feel he took artistic license and deviated too much from Campbell's story. There was suspense and terror to be sure, but it lacked the pervasive paranoia that Campbell conveyed so well in "Who Goes There?" In sharp contrast, director John Carpenter's 1982 version, "The Thing", both brilliantly captures the alien's insidious chameleon-like powers (through Rob Bottin's effects) and the paranoia it induced amongst the expedition's crew. Instead of bonding together as a cohesive unit as in the 1951 film, to fight a readily discernable foe, they fragmented in the face of a remarkably cunning enemy capable of imitating any one of them; they become deeply suspicious and paranoid of one another as any of them could be the alien in disguise, and they literally ask, "is it really you, WHO GOES THERE?"; echoing the name of the novella's title. This situation runs counter to classic character development, as how could anyone be stable and well-defined with their core-identity as such risk? Who's who? who's the good guy? bad guy? Perhaps a little unsettling to viewers and critics. I think this film has received a battering from movie critics because they were weaned on relishing a steady, inexorable buildup of suspense and an inevitable resolution. However, in "The Thing", this suspense is permeated with a claustrophobic paranoia and sullen dread, generating an atmospheric ambiguity - something the critics weren't comfortable with, hence, rejected. Combine this ambiguity with the critic's aversion to the graphic special effects, wholly appropriate to the storyline, but misinterpreted by them as "gratuitous violence and gore", then one understands why "The Thing" got butchered in the reviews. Here, as in the Campbell story, MacReady is the acknowledged hero, even before he tested himself as human, for we instinctively knew he would be. However, in the story, MacReady, with the aid of several genuinely human crewmembers, kills the alien and in doing so, literally saves the planet. Whereas, in the 1982 film, MacReady, valiant as he is, just isn't powerful enough to stop the alien. Thus, the open-ended ending; the lack of closure being a disappointment to me; I immediately thought "sequel", but have yet to see one. Also, keep in mind that in the story, the alien starts and ends with his original form, whereas in the 1982 film, the alien never has a definitive original form, being relatively amorphous throughout. In the final analysis, I like both of these films, in spite of their shortcomings; namely, the 1951 film's failure to adhere closely to the story, thereby failing to capture the essence of the imitative alien and paranoid atmosphere it generated; and the 1982 film's failure to remain faithful to the story's optimistic ending. Actually, both films stand up fairly well when referenced to Campbell's chilling tale, and even better when viewed as stand-alones. One thing is for sure, both films have earned a secure place in my video collection.