Far Better than I Remembered

Rating: 8/10 (26 January 2010)

I first saw The Thing when I was in junior high, and was rather disappointed. I had read about it in books on horror movies, and had expected a total gore fest beyond anything I had ever seen. Although the movie was indeed bloody, it was not the vomit-inducing shocker I had expected and hoped for.
Fast forward twelve years. I purchase the movie cheap on Amazon, having heard so many rave reviews of it that I was wondering if I had missed something. What I found was a sci-fi / horror masterpiece.
Too many reviewers concentrate on the gore in this movie, while failing to note the clever use of a claustrophobic, hostile setting, and the tense atmosphere. Although the film is set on earth, for all intensive purposes it takes place in an alien environment, a place so cold no human can survive there for long. It is these aspects of the film that make it genuinely unnerving.
The film also earns kudos for being a remake that improves on the original. Whereas The Thing from Another World was basically children's matinÃ©e fare, this is a truly disturbing film with a deserved cult following.