The Thing (1982)

If one decides to broaden fear into its most basic categories it can be divided into fear of the unseen, and fear of the misunderstood. Basically a lack of information causes anxiety, panic, and fear. John Carpenter's The Thing brings both of those fears disgustingly to life as a team of scientists studying something or other about the ice come across an entity beyond their comprehension.

The film opens with two Norwegians flying a helicopter through the snow trying to shoot a husky dog. For what reason could they be doing this? The dog seems harmless enough. Through a misunderstanding the two men die, leaving our American crew to wonder what sent them over the edge. Upon finding the Norwegian base the men discover that an alien craft was uncovered, and a block of ice, tens of thousands of years old, which used to contain an organism is empty. They also stumble upon a charred, mutilated, misshapen blob of a creature which looks like multiple people stirred together. Oh, and there are no surviving Norwegians. That's important.

As it happens, that dog isn't so friendly--in fact it's not a dog. What was uncovered was a frozen alien with the ability to digest its victims, mimic their DNA, and assume their shape perfectly. There are maybe ten men at the Antarctic camp, and once the thing begins to assimilate itself among the group there is no telling who is human and who is something entirely new. The men turn on each other as it becomes a witch hunt, and we are then presented with both fears: fear of the unknown, and the fear of the unseen.

When we do see the creature--which is absolutely terrifying, I would like to say--it seems an amalgam, not only of the animals and people that it has ingested (what a horrific thought!), but also resembles a combination of slugs, spiders, snakes, sea creatures, giant carnivores, and everything else we hate and are disgusted by. Each time we learn something new about it the thing surprises us in some different and sickening way.

The characters in this film are acted without too much zeal, but I forgive them because they are written without much personality. The point of them being the number that they are in the location that they are is so that characters cannot be added in, but that there are enough of them that the creature has a good long time to be able to pick them off, one by one--or so that the men can pick themselves off. But that isn't nearly as fun as watching a man's arms get bitten off by another "man"'s stomach.

The makeup and affects are really amazing. I had nightmares about the creature after watching it for the first time simply because the creatures looked so real and horrible. This is a pretty simple simple horror film, but John Carpenter knows what makes people jump and cringe, and he relishes in that knowledge. This is a great film to watch now that we are approaching Halloween.

3.5/4