"That's gonna win somebody the Nobel Prize."

Rating: 8/10 (7 November 2017)

Comparisons to 1951's "The Thing From Another World" are inevitable with this film, but it's the differences that are palpable. For this viewer, the original movie had more than it's share of unintended comical moments, not always a good thing for a sci-fi/horror flick when they interrupt the flow of the story. I'm thinking in particular of a scene in the earlier film when they brought the 'Thing', encased in a block of ice, into one of the camp buildings, and then proceeded to break a window to keep the room cold!!?? There was also a goofy suggestion to use something hot to throw against the creature in order to subdue it. The best that I can say about it was that it had some witty dialog, and James Arness in an early role as the titled creature, affecting a stance that would later becomes his signature during the opening to the TV series "Gunsmoke".
The first thing (sic) I did coming here to IMDb was to check this movie's release date compared to "Alien"; I wasn't sure which one came first. I would have been ready to credit "The Thing" with the original chest-burster concept along with the disembodied talking head that appeared in Ridley Scott's masterpiece, but it turns out "Alien" was first, three years earlier in 1979. I was kind of relieved about that, I've always held "Alien" in high regard as a monster original.
But I have to say, this movie works for fans of the genre. It's a bit more detailed than it's precursor, and keeps the viewer on edge trying to guess which of the scientific crew is already infected and ready to terrorize the rest. You even begin to doubt whether Kurt Russell's character is going to come out of it unaffected, but as it turns out, there are no happy campers left by the end of the story. I thought the finale leaving MacReady and Childs (Keith David) as the lone survivors contemplating their fate to be surreally effective.
The biggest surprise for me here was seeing who did the score for the picture. Ennio Morricone has supplied some of the best music ever for films in the Spaghetti Western genre and that's where I'm most familiar with his work. A quick peek at his credits here on IMDb reveals he's composed for over five hundred movies! Composing the music for "The Thing" might have been something of a departure from his comfort zone, but it certainly caught the terrifying mood of the story. Nicely done.