The Thing (1982)

(On TV, July 1999) This suffers considerably from nearly twenty years of inspired derivatives, multiple homages and endless plain rip-offs. Stories of alien possession and isolated humans threatened by monsters have proliferated since 1982, and the grand-daddy of the genre, while still pretty good, simply doesn’t seems so fresh. Unfortunately for this Special-Effects-based horror film, the effects haven’t aged well either. Finally, the muddy-black cinematography and hesitant direction don’t flow as well as they should, and The Thing is, all things considered, more of a disappointment than still an enjoyable film. Not bad, actually, but not as good as it probably once was.

(Second Viewing, On UHD/4K, September 2024) What was I thinking in the above review? Sure, some special effects are a bit dodgy now; sure, The Thing has been imitated countless times. But it’s still a heck of a thriller — absorbing, tense, crazy when it hits the high notes. Great performance from Kurt Russell; an even better turn by John Carpenter as the director. It’s not perfect, but it holds up very well against the 1954 version, and it’s certainly better than the 2011 one. It looks superb in UHD/4K, and the lengthy making-of documentary answers more questions than I had.