A terrific surprise

Rating: 8/10 (14 June 2015)

When my boyfriend and I decided to watch this movie, we dove into it thinking it was going to be a rather amusing, easygoing piece of classic 80's horror movie with clichés and bad effects. And that is was similar to Alien. That's all we knew and we didn't expect much. So the movie started and we giggled at the cheesy characters and bad haircuts (Kurt Russell, as always, is a gem), as you do. Then along came the scene where the dog mutated and we both fell silent in awe. Occasionally, one of us burst out saying "WOW". I could not have been more surprised or terrified.
If you are a fan of over-the-top 80's gore effects, seen in e.g. Cronenberg movies or the Evil Dead trilogy, you are going to love The Thing. This movie went to such an extreme level of gory mutation and body horror that I can only really compare to the ending of The Fly. Yet, even if the extent to which the body horror is taken is some of the most extreme and in turn ridiculous I've seen in any movie of this kind so far, The Thing never loses its finesse. As horrific and disgusting as they are, you still always look forward to the next mutation scene, just to see what new thing they can think of next. The Thing is one of the absolutely most creative horror films I have ever seen.
But The Thing was much more than just the gore. In this movie, John Carpenter once again proves he is the master of build-up. The tension, partially thanks to the skillful camera-work, never stop creeping under your skin throughout the story and never lets you stop keeping guessing. The characters themselves are unable to trust each other, and for the viewer, it never gets less obvious who you can trust or not. It manages to always keep you on the edge of your seat.
The Thing only really falls short in the boring soundtrack and the flat characters with little to no personality, except for Kurt Russell, whose character is unnecessarily crass and hard to relate to as the hero of the story. But with that said, it's hard to believe the hatred the movie first got upon release (Roger Ebert, I'm looking at you!). The Thing is surprisingly enjoyable, especially for its genre, it really stands out.