The pinnacle...

Rating: 10/10 (4 February 2005)

The critical response to THE THING was par for the course: having been brainwashed by kiddie corn like E.T., they could hardly be expected to view objectively what has turned out to be a timeless masterpiece. From an opening evocative of any of a number of 50's sci-fi schlockers (not to mention the closing moments of Carpenter's DARK STAR, itself) to an ambiguous though not unsatisfying ending, it's clear that this masterfully macabre monsterpiece is a bona fide tour de force- a coup de grace, par excellence.
The 50's version, which plays out more like the James Whale FRANKENSTEIN, pales by comparison. Carpenter is a meticulous craftsman (he has contemporaries, but no peer) and, for those of us who like our flights of fancy tempered with a bit of storytelling, he does not disappoint: by simply returning to the source material and notching up the suspense in his patented manner, he and scenarist Bill Lancaster have fashioned a claustrophobic chiller that plays the e-t incognito exactly the way it should've been played the first time around. The players, to a man, are excellent. Carpenter's overriding concern is clearly this band of enjoyably eccentric misfits and their reactions to the malevolent monster in their midst. He navigates the tight rope between fantasy and reality like an expert. (Which he is: this is his frightening forte.) The "thing" itself is truly the stuff of which nightmares are made: the movie showcases, without catering to, some marvelous mechanical makeup effects by master monster maker Rob Bottin. Under Carpenter's artistic aegis, these effects are utilized as dramatically as possible. If there's another candidate in the running for greatest monster movie of all time, I haven't seen it. Nothing else comes close.