Blast From the Past - The Thing : Review
Its become that time of the year where movies that come out in the theaters are not appealing anymore. Sure 300 was amazing and I am looking forward to seeing Grindhouse and Hot Fuzz, but there are some movies out now that make you say "How did this get the ok?". (Who really wants to watch another Fast and Furious rip-off.) This is the time of the year where I open the DVD vault and watch some of the best movies, in my eyes, ever made.
John Carpenter's The Thing. A movie based on the idea of an alien organism crashing on planet earth to assimilate and destroy the human population. An Antartic team, led by Kurt Russel's character MacGreedy, descovers the alien spacecraft and soon discovers that one of their own is "The Thing". The movie leads to grusome deaths and wild speculations throughout the movie. As well as some pretty memorable movie quotes. (My favorite - "I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS F___ING COUCH! ")
This movie is one of the movies I think of when I hear the term "Scif/Horror" film. Movies like this just are not made anymore plain and simple. At the time this was released it was part of the great time in movie history in which there were such films as Alien, Predator, Leviathan and of course the all time best alien movie ever Aliens. There have been many movies that stole the idea from this movie to make there own piece of crap (ex. The Faculty, Dreamcatcher) and movies/tv shows that made great references to it. (ex. Cabin Fever, South Park, Slither)
This movie is up there on my list of all time SciFi movies. The location of the film was the key to this film. If you put the actors in the middle of New York it never would have worked. The snow and darkness gave the film the disturbing aspect of being alone in the middle of nowhere with an alien after you. The story could have used a little bit more of a background but it definately starts off with a bang. Next time you find a dog and decide to bring it home.... dont.
The Video Game based on the movie is super sweet.
By Matt Alexander
4/12/2007