The Thing
(Region One DVD Review)
 (1982)
review by Billion$Baby

"Trust is a tough thing to come by these days."

If there was one particular horror dvd which you need to own in your collection, this would be the one.

Arguably John Carpenter's finest moment to date and it's also the film which JC spent the longest amount of time in pre-production and production for. And it certainly shows. JC admits to being terrified by the original Hawks 50's feature as a child but upon reading the John W Campbell short story (Who goes there?), JC was surprised to discover that the black and white film actually bore little resemblance to that story.

Bill Lancaster wrote a new and great script and JC then followed that up with tense direction, hiring Rob Bottin to provide some of the greatest special effects ever seen on the screen. And the sets by John Lloyd and the matte painting visual effects by Albert Whitlock are nothing short of fabulous.

This time around, the feature concentrates more on the paranoia of the film's characters and upon the apocalyptic nature of the discovery and behaviour of The Thing. As it mentions in the dvd flyer, "destroying The Thing almost becomes secondary to identifyingit."

What always made me laugh about this feature is that Morricone was hired to provide a soundtrack that sounds exactly as if it was written by Carpenter anyway! It's a great score though and it aids the feelings of dread and inevitability with it's plodding down beat nature.

I first saw this film as a child and at the time I was completely unprepared for just how realistic the gruesome effects would appear. Everything looked real and those effects still more than hold their own today. The arm loss sequence is still frighteningly realistic and it certainly catches you by surprise onthe first viewing. It's the "chest-burster" moment of the feature.

The Thing (just in case you didn't know) comes from outer space. It's a being capable of ingesting and then assuming the identity of any living being. It could imitate a thousand different beings from a thousand different worlds, and this organism has the power to even become the whole world. That's one of the greatest horror premises ever created. And that premise offered John Carpenter and Rob Bottin the opportunity to let their imaginations run wild.

A group of American scientists and researchers in Antartica find themselves investigating exactly why a Norwegian camp was destroyed by it's own occupants. The Norwegians discovered a ufo which was trapped under the ice for over 100,000 years and they took it's occupant back to their camp. A big mistake! Unluckily for the American team, The Thing also finds it's way to their camp.

The film was shot on location at a glacier in British Colombia and also at the freezer temperature conditions of Universal's studios. Those conditions aid the performances greatly as the actors then found themselves suffering from the same artic conditions as the characters, and it forged a genuine bond between those actors and the crew.

The actors impress with their depiction of fairly one-dimensional characters but it's Kurt Russell that steals the show with his performance as the likable MacReady. You'll yearn for him to survive. Which reminds me, The Thing deserves respect for it's powerful ending alone.

The biggest problem for John Carpenter was the amount of characters to be shown on screen at the same time. The scenes often feature over 10 actors in space-restricted sets, all of whom have dialogue, and it's up to JC to film these proceedings and still keep the screen activity interesting. He does so.

It's nigh on impossible to highlight any particular scene since the whole film impresses but I will say that the blood-testing sequence is a masterful use of tension and suspense. The first viewing makes you sit upon the edge of your seat and it will certainlymake you jump when the inevitable occurs. What a great moment!

Oddly enough the feature failed at the cinema and it recieved it's many accolades years later through the medium of home video and television viewings. Universal, John Carpenter and the cast and crew must have been extremely disappointed at the time but I should imagine that all participants now feel vindicated. And Universal must have made their money many times over by now.

Unfortunetly the dvd doesn't recieve an anamorphic print but the extras are nothing short of incredible. The dvd offers:

-Widescreen print and 5.1 sound
-An outstanding 80 minute making of documentary
-An excellent commentary track by John Carpenter and
Kurt Russell (one of the best ever recorded)
-Film out-takes
-Isolated music score
-Trailers
-Cast, production and film-maker notes
-Loads of fascinating photos showing us the set buil
ding and production of the film
-Storyboards and concept art
-And more!

This dvd is an essential purchase for any horror enthusiast. Not only is it one of the best extras ladendiscs ever made available, but it's also one of the greatest horrors of all time.