07/10/09 - The Thing

The Thing (1982, 109 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/

The Thing is supposed to be one of the scariest thriller / horror / sci-fi films of all time. It's supposed to be up there with Alien in terms of scariness factor. But does it? Or does it fall completely flat?

The Thing follows a team of American researchers on an outpost in Antarctica. The main person there is MacReady played by Kurt Russell. There's a motley of other characters but the only ones that really (in my opinion) get enough screen time are: Wilford Brimley as Dr. Blair and Keith David as Childs.

This is a thriller / horror. The thing that makes Alien work so well - again in my opinion - is that the slow pace creates so much tension. We don't actually see the alien itself until about halfway through the movie. And even that is just a facehugger and not the full warrior. However, in The Thing, we see it way too early. Not counting the dog (which we see in the first minute), The Thing itself appears I would say within the thirty minute mark. Then, quickly after they discover it, Dr. Blair is able to discover that it can imitate things. This, however, is a great plot point. It makes the researchers actually more afraid of one another than the alien itself. It works fantastically well. But alas, when the alien does appear, it is so quickly burned and destroyed that we don't even have time to really get afraid. This happens multiple times as well.

Overall, I gave this film a 6/10. The "afraid of each other" sub-plot is great and is a fantastic way to treat this movie. It creates tension outside of the alien itself. But the alien is seen far too quickly and certain parts of the movie go way too quickly and this eases the thrill and scare that the movie needs.

[Note: Due to a voting update, I have changed the rating of The Thing to a 07/10.]