This is one of the most tense, scariest movies I've ever seen. The visuals were some of the best at the time, and these effects (which were created using actual animatronics) create a movie that still looks amazing today, along with a suspenseful story and believable characters brought to life by their actors. It was directed by John Carpenter, who is famous for films like Halloween, Escape from New York, and Big Trouble In Little China. These films, apart from being very strong on their own, are also famous for their visual styles and interesting characters. It isn't a surprise that The Thing is the same way.
The film is based on the short story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr. It follows a team of twelve Americans on a base in Antarctica. A Norwegian shooter (who is later revealed to be in a research team further away) chases a dog into their base. After firing on it and wounding one the American crew members, their captain shoots him. From here, the Americans search the destroyed Norwegian base to find that they discovered something in the ice. We later find out that this thing that they discovered is some sort of alien, who was trapped, but is awake again. It has the ability to imitate anything, including humans, and the horror begins.
The cast is lead by an unwilling pilot, R.J. MacCready, played by Kurt Russel (Russel and Carpenter worked together in Escape from New York and Big Trouble In Little China, as well). He is the star of this film, but only a small bit of an awesome ensemble cast. You have Garry (Donald Moffat), the base captain; Clark (Richard Masur), who cares for the dogs; Childs (Keith David), a strong and commanding type who often finds himself butting heads with MacCready; among many more. The entire time, we're never 100% sure who is fine and who is one of these things. They behave exactly the same as those in the crew they transformed into, and only strike when alone or when discovered. Soon, a big snow storm comes by the base, and traps the crew there. Slowly, we see them die, one by one, before the final confrontation between those left and the thing.
This film is all about the atmosphere. It has a very claustrophobic feeling, comparable to Alien (see the coming Throwback Thursday on Halloween!), being stuck in Antarctica. Between the small base and tight corridors within it, there is a lot of tension building between the entire ensemble cast. With the many different personalities between these people, we see changes in trust and what this person would usually do in this type of situation. We're constantly trying to figure out who is one of the things by watching their various actions, asking ourselves, "Is this something that we would've seen him do before?"
The best bit of this movie, though, is the look. While these things look like us by default, they can transform in a second to something much more terrifying (see that pretty picture above). Although it is never actually told to us, these forms it takes seem to be some sort of mixture of other creatures it once copied, adding a whole other type of scare to this scenario... Did this thing conquer other worlds before coming here?
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Overall, this is one of the best thriller/horror films I have ever seen. It's one of those movies I'll watch again and again and still notice new things (I suppose it doesn't work for that one...) that I didn't before. The effects are still extremely slick after all this time, and the actors are still just as believable and fun to watch. However, when looking at it from afar, the true star is the creature, THE THING.
RATING: 4/5
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