I’ve never seen this movie.
I’m glad I finally did.
The Thing is a brilliant horror movie that blends the right amount of suspense, schlock, body horror, and practical effects to create a classic.
Kurt Russell was a far better actor than most of the 80s action stars, criminally underrated all around.
The brilliant part of this movie isn’t just the practical effects, or creating a forbidding, smothering atmosphere. No, it’s the twist: Carpenter shows you the monster — several times, in fact — but also doesn’t tell you who the monster is. He throws in a ton of misdirection, feints, paranoia, crazy monster antics, but never tells you how things actually went down or how it ends. There’s a scene where they do a blood test to figure out who has been taken over by the Thing. The tension rises as the characters themselves don’t seem to know if they are still human or not. And, aside from one definitive answer, we the audience are actually left with more questions about who has been infected or not.
It’s peak late 70s-early 80s horror cinema.
