BY CHRISTOPHER STAMM
GUEST MOVIE REVIEWER
The Thing (Now showing in select theatres)
This film is rated R – for language, violence, and scenes of horror and gore
I usually try to avoid doing two older films in a row, but this week I made an exception. John Carpenter’s The Thing is celebrating its 40th anniversary this week with a limited re-release into cinemas, with a single showing on June 19, 2022, at 7:00 p.m. at the Marcus Cinema Cedar Creek in Rothschild.
Released in 1982, The Thing underperformed at the box office, mainly because E.T. The Extraterrestrial, another film about an alien visiting earth, came out and was family friendly, whereas The Thing is decidedly NOT family friendly and the alien in question is not warm and fuzzy, and rather than having a penchant for eating Reese’s Pieces, it has designs on all of humanity.
Based on the novella, Who Goes There, by John W. Campbell Jr., the story revolves around 12 men at a remote Antarctic research station who find themselves under a quiet siege from an alien presence that can imitate anything it comes into contact with perfectly, and the question becomes, who is who.
With a slow build that truly captures the isolation and fear these men are faced with, not knowing who is alien or who is human, we viewers can feel the tension build and the fear start to take control of those men’s actions.
Who Goes There was previously adapted in the 1950’s with The Thing From Another World which, for its day, was pretty good. But hey, it was the 50’s where film budgets were often what was found under the couch cushions.
Directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russel and Keith David, as well as Wilford Brimley, The Thing is a masterpiece and has earned its place in horror history for letting us know that man is the warmest place to hide.
So this Sunday you will find me at the cinema, popcorn in hand, waiting for the lights to dim so I can go back to that remote research station and watch 12 ordinary men face the extraordinary, and I will be loving every minute of it again as I did when I was 14 years old in a dark theatre in New York.
The Thing gets five out of five stars and should be seen on the big Screen this Sunday so you can ask that all important question, Who Goes There?