The Thing
October 14, 2011 | 1 Comment
29 years later, comes this prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 movie The Thing.
The John Carpenter one was itself a remake of the 1951 movie The Thing From Another World, which was based on the 1938 John W. Campbell novella “Who Goes There?”
All have the same basic premise: A scientific research base in Antarctica (or the Arctic in the 1938 and 1951 versions) finds a crashed UFO, thaws an alien body entombed in the ice, to everyone’s misfortune.
In the gooey 1982 John Carpenter version, Kurt Russell’s American scientific base finds that something has destroyed a Norwegian scientific base.
Now in this 2011 prequel, from Dutch director Matthijs van Heijningen, we get to see what happened at the Norwegian camp.
The Thing (2011)
This is really a remake and a prequel; probably a lot of the audience has never seen the John Carpenter version. And it’s not necessary to have seen it.
The same basic cycle of an alien that infiltrates (messily) and can assume the shape of humans, leading to paranoia in an enclosed space (the base camp) in one of the most dangerous places on Earth (Antarctica) ensues.
We get to see a lot more of the crashed UFO from the John Carpenter version.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays the American paleontologist flown in to examine the alien remains.
Like in the John Carpenter version, the alien really has a revolting process of consuming humans and assuming their shape. This isn’t done behind a curtain. The transforming process involves a lot of teeth, claws, stalks, viscera, and tentacles sprouting out all over the place.
It’s pretty well done; icky and suspenseful in the spirit of the 1982 version. Of course; I’m very familiar with the John Carpenter version; what I don’t know is what the experience would be like for someone who never saw the first movie.
For the fanboy, the movie is pretty careful in adding little touches to show that this indeed does link up with the John Carpenter version. I’m sure eventually there’ll be webpages with DVD screencaptures detailing each accuracy and inaccuracy. But, this movie obviously has a healthy respect for the original, and takes pains to make itself a consistent period piece.
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The Thing about THE THING
October 14, 2011 | 2 Comments
John W. Campbell’s 1938 science fiction novella “Who Goes There?” has certainly spawned, or sprouted, a lot of sequels, spinoffs, and re-imaginings, usually called one THE THING or another. As well as imitators; there were episodes of DOCTOR WHO and X-FILES that were very THE THING-influenced.
The Thing (2011)
The original story appeared in ASTOUNDING STORIES in 1938. It was made into a comic book in 1976, and a BBC radio play in 2002. You can read it here.
Then came 3 movie versions. The various versions all have the same basic story: People at an Arctic or Antarctic scientific research base find an alien frozen in the ice, and thaw it, to everyone’s misfortune.
First came the 1951 movie THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (Trailer on YouTube), produced by Howard Hawks, directed by Christian Nyby (Although Howard Hawks apparently had a big hand in the directing as well).
The Thing From Another World (1951)
There’s a 2010 book THE THINGS by Dan Brereton (Amazon) (who I think is the same Dan Brereton who’s been a comic artist and writer for 20+ years, but I may be wrong) which is a sequel to this movie.
Then came the 1982 John Carpenter movie THE THING (Trailer on YouTube), where the setting changes to Antarctica. This was one of the first R-rated movies I saw, at a friend’s house on HBO. Which was still a novelty — R-rated movies being sent DIRECTLY TO YOUR TV SET. I remember we were eating a large meaty pizza while watching this. Urp. Way too many things sprouted stalks and started walking around in that movie. I was looking at my slice of pizza expecting it to sprout stalks.
The Thing (1982)
I had a coworker who had spent a year at an Antarctic research base. When the last plane went out and the base was isolated for several months of dark and hard winter (That period where you particularly don’t want to find out you have breast cancer), that night they would have a party, drink a fair amount of alcohol, and watch THE THING on VHS.
That movie had an Alan Dean Foster novelization, various Dark Horse comic book sequels, and a 2002 video game sequel (wikipedia).
And a 2010 Hugo-nominated short story by Peter Watts that retells the events of the film from the point of view of the monster (So “The Things” are the humans).
Now comes the 2011 prequel to THE THING (Official website), also called THE THING, just to make it confusing. Opens October 14th in the U.S.
The Thing (2011)
Dark Horse comics has a free online prequel to the prequel (Real prequel — set in Viking times). Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.
As Julie Andrews would sing, these are a few of my favorite THINGS!
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