The Thing (1982)

Tagline: “Man is the warmest place to hide”
Running Time: 109 minutes

Film Quality: 5/5
Gore Content: 3.5/5
Entertainment Value: 5/5
Originality: 3.5/5

Introduction

Having already established himself as a masterful director with a small budget, John Carpenter was given a shot at the big time with a wodge of cash from Universal Pictures and a script from Bill Lancaster, son of Hollywood legend Burt. Heavily influenced by H.P Lovecraft, Carpenter didn’t collaborate with Lancaster with the writing and, as with previous films ‘Halloween’ and ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ chose to put his own stamp as an auteur with some almost unbearable claustrophobic tension. Equally as impressive as a character study in paranoia and as a body horror, many consider what was an almighty turkey on release to be Carpenter’s masterpiece.

In a Nutshell

A fatal encounter with two Norwegians at a US research outpost in Antarctica encourages the team to find out what persuaded these Scandanavian scoundrels to start shooting at an Alaskan hound. Bringing back a badly burned, deformed corpse and footage showing something unearthed in the ice, a shapeshifting alien lurks within the camp. But who is really human and who can they really trust in order to survive?

So what’s good about it?

Why beat about the bush, Rob Bottin’s practical effects work in this film have gone down in cinematic history as some of the finest ever committed to film. The sequence with the defibrillator penetrating Norris’ chest to bite off a colleague’s arms, only for a monster to burst out of it, all whilst Norris’ head slowly detaches itself from the rest of his body to sprout legs and scamper off is utterly jaw-dropping. One of the characters sums it up sublimely by staring at the spider-head to utter “You’ve got to be f*cking kidding”, echoing our thoughts. That’s just one of many highlights including the dog reveal, the blood serum test and the brilliantly conceived deformed bodies.

But this is so much more than a gorefest. Carpenter uses the alien’s shapeshifting capabilities to create an ever escalating feeling of paranoid tension. MacReady even records this in his notes, saying ‘Nobody trusts anyone anymore’. The testosterone flying around amongst the all male cast renders the arguments and confrontations perfectly believable and Carpenter makes absolutely the right decision in keeping us out of the loop in terms of who is infected and who isn’t. We don’t trust anyone either meaning we can’t side with a particular character…even Kurt Russell’s weary hero MacReady acts irrationally, strapping himself to a flame thrower whilst holding several sticks of dynamite. This tension is made explicit with the blood serum test where we finally get to find out who’s human and who’s not without having any idea as to what will happen – the way it is filmed and scripted suggests the characters don’t know either.

The outpost was a constructed set and Carpenter makes incredible use of all of the dark corridors and corners. We see figures walking past doorways, shadows on a door as the dog enters someone’s room but who is it? We never get a true sense of the geography of the place, adding further layers to our confusion and increasing the sensation of being trapped in a maze from which there is no escape. In many ways it’s reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ with the added element of not knowing who’s on your side OR what the alien looks like.

The film sank like a stone in cinemas and reviews were terrible, one of the elements attacked was the characterisation which I find odd. I think the characters are well written with their own distinct personalities. You have the volatile Childs, mild-mannered Norris, slightly disturbed Palmer, the leader Garry amongst others. These characteristics come to the fore in such elevated states of confusion and self-preservation in what I consider to be a very believable way. The acting is spot on throughout and reactions to situations range from taking control or looking for inspiration to blind panic and each character steps up to his given characteristics.

In an unusual move for him, Carpenter chose not to score the film himself, instead enlisting the not inconsiderable talents of Ennio Morricone. His score is subtle, simmering away underneath the surface, just like our character’s emotions and alien’s identity. Apparently Carpenter got married to Morricone’s music which was the primary reason for wanting him to score one of his films, and what better opportunity than with Universal’s backing?

No phoning home for this alien

What about the bad?

They couldn’t have picked a worse time to release it! Steven Spielberg had just introduced the world to one of the cutest and most lovable aliens that ever wanted to ‘go home’ in a decade that was full of optimism, colour and happy endings. So, along comes Carpenter’s tale of a seriously pissed off alien full of pessimism, paranoia and distrust with an ending completely at odds with Spielberg’s tearjerker. Factor in that it was released on the same day as Ridley Scott’s other sci-fi classic ‘Blade Runner’ (also a flop, also dark and brooding) and it never stood a chance.

My only other complaint is more a testament to the brilliance of the rest of the film and that is that the final special effect reveal is overshadowed by almost every other special effect in the film. It’s not that it’s particularly bad, far from it, but it doesn’t compare with the defibrillator scene and is something of an anti-climax. Of course it does pave the way for the brilliant final moments with MacReady and Childs and we can all give thanks that a happy ending, insisted upon by studio execs, was never used (take note ‘Blade Runner’!) and hasn’t even seen the light of day as a blu-ray extra…at least not yet!

Any Themes?

Self-preservation

Paranoia, madness and the effects of isolation. As part of what Carpenter refers to as his ‘Apocalypse Trilogy’ (also including ‘Prince of Darkness’ and ‘In the Mouth of Madness’) this is an incredibly nihilistic film. The end offers very little hope and throughout the film, at the very moment that the characters need to stay together they push each other further apart as relationships completely break down and they quite literally kill each other.

Picking up on similar themes explored by the 50s version of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, the film explores the notion that trust is ultimately fruitless as, when it comes down to it, self-preservation is our strongest basic desire. Others’ wellbeing and looking out for each other is meaningless when compared to our own wellbeing so, when we think others are putting their own wellbeing above our own, trust in those others breaks down and paranoia kicks in. Call it survival of the fittest, kill or be killed or dog eat dog, it boils down to plain old survival instinct and once trust is lost it’s almost impossible to get back.

Release history

No censorship issues in the UK, although a US TV version was created that removed some of the potty-mouthed parley (full marks for political correctness to the genius who dubbed ‘motherf#cker’ with ‘monkey fella’!) , some of the more gruesome effects and featured a voiceover at the beginning of the film. It also introduces most of the characters via voiceover and features an additional shot at the end of one of the dogs running away and turning back to look (possibly a repeat of one of the opening shots) which more explicitly implies that The Thing has survived and escaped. From memory the TV version shown on 80s TV in the UK was virtually uncut, apart from some of the swearing.

Cultural Significance

Massive! Despite bombing like a Lancaster it has been reappraised countless times and is now not only regarded as one of Carpenter’s best but one of the best of the 80s full stop! It is also considered a reference film for practical special effects, how they should be done and a prime example of a film that uses its effects, not just for shock value but also to propel the plot.

A prequel of sorts was released in 2014 which suffered by comparison to the original but enormous effort was made to pay respect to the original. This included creating an exact replica of the room where The Thing escaped its ice block, using Kurt Russell’s height as a reference point, explaining how the deformed bodies came to be and even explaining the axe in the wall that Macready and Doc come across. It’s such a shame that they felt the need to ‘touch up’ the practical effects, why go to all that effort to create such effects only to hide them behind CGI? Will Hollywood ever learn???

It should also be mentioned that ‘The Thing’ was a clear influence behind Quentin Tarantino’s wonderful ‘The Hateful Eight’, even using unused parts of Ennio Morricone’s score that featured as music on the menu of the original DVD. Both films star Kurt Russell in the lead role, they both feature a group of, in this case largely, male characters trapped in an isolated space by a snowstorm, both play significantly on the paranoia and breakdown of trust because a person or persons unknown aren’t who they appear to be. Tarantino is a known admirer or Carpenter and an expert in reusing themes, scores and entire scenes or sections of dialogue to pay homage to classic films and this, to me, is his best since the equally paranoid ‘Reservoir Dogs’.

Final Thoughts

Considered by Carpenter to be his love letter to H.P. Lovecraft’s monumental novella ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ and visiting a number of the themes covered in that classic piece of literature is has quite a heritage. Just as relevant as a paranoid thriller as it is a sci-fi body horror it works on so many levels that it’s quite astounding that it was considered a flop upon its theatrical release. That it has been reappraised as a classic of the decade and genre is testament to those that love it and turned it into a hit on VHS and one in the eye for the critics who got it horribly wrong.

Memorable Quotes

Garry: “I know you gentlemen have been through a lot but, if it’s alright with you, I’d rather not spend the rest of the winter TIED TO THIS F@CKING COUCH!”

Palmer (as Norris’ head sprouts legs and walks off): “You’ve got to be f@cking kidding.”

Palmer: “I was wondering when El Capitan was going to get the chance to use his pop gun.”

MacReady: “Trust’s a hard thing to come by these days.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Alien’, ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, ‘Species’, ‘Lifeforce’