Amazon.com video review:
Director John Carpenter and special makeup effects master Rob
Bottin teamed up for this 1982 remake of the 1951 science fiction
classic The Thing from Another World, and the result is a mixed
blessing. It's got moments of highly effective terror and
spine-tingling suspense, but it's mostly a showcase for some of the
goriest and most horrifically grotesque makeup effects ever created
for a movie. With such highlights as a dog that splits open and
blossoms into something indescribably gruesome, this is the kind of
movie for die-hard horror fans and anyone who slows down to stare at
fatal traffic accidents. On those terms, however, it's hard not to be
impressed by the movie's wild and wacky freak show. It all begins when
scientists at an arctic research station discover an alien spacecraft
under the thick ice, and thaw out the alien body found aboard. What
they don't know is that the alien can assume any human form, and
before long the scientists can't tell who's real and who's a deadly
alien threat. Kurt Russell leads the battle against the terrifying
intruder, and the supporting cast includes Richard Masur, Richard
Dysart, Donald Moffat, and Wilford Brimley. They're all playing
standard characters who are neglected by the mechanistic screenplay
(based on the classic sci-fi story "Who Goes There?" by John
W. Campbell), but Carpenter's emphasis is clearly on the gross-out
effects and escalating tension. If you've got the stomach for it (and
let's face it, there's a big audience for eerie gore), this is a
thrill ride you won't want to miss. The collector's edition DVD
includes a behind-the-scenes "making of" featurette, production
photos, the original theatrical trailer, and more. --Jeff
Shannon
Amazon.com video review:
Director John Carpenter and special makeup effects master Rob
Bottin teamed up for this 1982 remake of the 1951 science fiction
classic The Thing from Another World, and the result is a mixed
blessing. It's got moments of highly effective terror and
spine-tingling suspense, but it's mostly a showcase for some of the
goriest and most horrifically grotesque makeup effects ever created
for a movie. With such highlights as a dog that splits open and
blossoms into something indescribably gruesome, this is the kind of
movie for die-hard horror fans and anyone who slows down to stare at
fatal traffic accidents. On those terms, however, it's hard not to be
impressed by the movie's wild and wacky freak show. It all begins when
scientists at an arctic research station discover an alien spacecraft
under the thick ice, and thaw out the alien body found aboard. What
they don't know is that the alien can assume any human form, and
before long the scientists can't tell who's real and who's a deadly
alien threat. Kurt Russell leads the battle against the terrifying
intruder, and the supporting cast includes Richard Masur, Richard
Dysart, Donald Moffat, and Wilford Brimley. They're all playing
standard characters who are neglected by the mechanistic screenplay
(based on the classic sci-fi story "Who Goes There?" by John
W. Campbell), but Carpenter's emphasis is clearly on the gross-out
effects and escalating tension. If you've got the stomach for it (and
let's face it, there's a big audience for eerie gore), this is a
thrill ride you won't want to miss. --Jeff
Shannon
Amazon.com video review:
Howard Hawks's original 1951 production of The Thing from
Another World can be glimpsed playing on a TV that fateful
October evening in John Carpenter's blockbuster hit, Halloween
(1978). A few years later, Carpenter reteamed with his Escape from New
York star Kurt Russell to do a remake. But while the first
movie version of The Thing was in atmospheric black and white,
Carpenter's 1982 version is in widescreen, full color, and features
some of the most revoltingly explicit, surreally imaginative special
effects (courtesy of FX-meister Rob Bottin) that have ever been seen
on the screen. Researchers in the remote Antarctic dig up the remains
of a spacecraft that has long been frozen in the ice. But the alien
life unthaws and infects the living (not only humans but sled dogs
too), living and gestating inside them. (This horrific concept was
also explored in the two versions of Invasion of the Body
Snatchers and the Alien movies.)
This Thing is chilling in every sense of the word, with plenty
of terrifying, adrenaline-pumping moments that build it to a powerful
and shockingly nihilistic conclusion. It's a harsh and uncompromising
movie (hewing more closely to the original 1930s story "Who Goes
There?")--so much so that it probably never would have been given a
green-light by any studio in the more cautious and doggedly upbeat
1990s. --Jim Emerson
