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The Thing
Directed by John Carpenter. Starring
Kurt Russel, Wilford Brimley, T.K. Carter, Richard Dysart,
Richard Massur, Donald Moffat, David Clennon, Keith David, Charles
Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Joel Polis, Thomas G. Waites.
Carpenter's remake
of the 1950's version of "The Thing from Outer Space",
is surprisingly more faithful to the novella "Who Goes There?"
by John W. Campbell Jr., on which it is based. Unlike the
bad ass vegitable-man running around in the 50's version,
Carpenter had a $1.5 million dollar budget for special effects
to work with and a fx crew of over 40, including Rob Bottin,
Albert Whitlock and even Stan Winston, with which he used to
create some of the most graphic monster scenes in movie history.
Although a flop at the box office, the film has achieved cult
status.
The film is
based around a US Antartic Research Outpost that, one day, has
some unexpected visitors; a dog and some really unfriendly Norweigans
trying to kill said dog. The Norweigans were killed, leaving
behind a real mystery. During the night, the dog mutates and
attacks the other dogs in the camp. The team soon realises that
a bizarre alien life-form has found its way to their midst.
A life-form with a real attitude and the uncanny ability to infect,
assimilate and imitate anything. Not good!
Considering
that Lovecraft's creations were intended as being alien, not
in the sense of little green men, but as in not of this earth,
and that John Campbell Jr. supposedly was inspired heavily from
Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" when writing
"Who Goes There?"...I can then say in confidence that
this has to be one of the most faitful adaptations (screenplay
wise) to a Lovecraftian theme, and that the visual imagery is
the most truest to the horrors that are conjured up by mythos
writings.
Things To Look For:
- The soundtrack...go out and
buy it now!! Morricone's / Carpenter's work is great Lovecraftian
fare.
- Russel gives a great preformance
as do all the supporting cast.
- Rob Bottin & Stan Winston's
gruesome handiwork.
- The DVD! I own The
Thing on DVD and enjoyed all the special features they jammed
it with, including the 1+ hour documentary on the making
of the film, tons of pre/post production photos and never before
seen stop motion animation that never made it into the film as
well as behind the scenese visual effects films. They are not
joking when they call this the "special collector's edition"!
thing1.wav Blair (resident biologist) describes the 'nature
of the beast'.
thing2.wav MacReady and Norris talking about what those crazy
Norweigan's were up to.
thing3.wav Garry can't comprehend what just happened...
thing4.wav Talk about a stomach ache...(you'll understand if
you know what scene this is from).
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