John Carpenter's the Thing: A Contemporary Classic of Horror and Suspense

"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." --Sun Tzu, "The Art of War".

Never was a truism more applicable than this for the 12 lonely men stationed in a bleak Antarctica research station in 1982, the setting of John Carpenter's visionary masterpiece remake of "The Thing", based off the original short story "Who Goes There?" by author John W. Campbell.

The setup is simple enough: a handful of scraggly, blue-collar mechanics, pilots, and maintenance workers join a team of a few select scientists to spend a winter doing research in the harshest desert on earth: the arid, frigid hell of Antarctica. What they find instead is the stuff of nightmares: a living alien embodied in not only a seemingly "normal" sled dog, but inside the burned remains of a mutilated body as well. Worse, it's a shape-shifting alien capable of overtaking, and then imitating, any life-form perfectly. Within hours of arrival, the alien has already overtaken a few members of the camp, setting off an intensely quickening pace of paranoia, fear, and horror as the remaining members attempt to discover the doppelgangers before they too are overtaken by The Thing.

This movie is a contemporary horror and suspense classic, and a showcase for not only pitch-perfect casting, but special effects originally created by a then 22-year-old Rob Bottin which set a standard for years to come. Some critics gave it a luke-warm reception, such as Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Roger Ebert, but I feel he missed the mark widely by concentrating too much on the (admittedly) gory, blood-soaked special effects and monster itself, and not enough on what truly makes the movie a classic: the characters, the setting, and the unknown.

The Thing works so well as a horror and suspense movie for three solid reasons. First, it's not just because of the amazing effects, but actually because of the dialogue and interaction between the characters. Too many times, the main antagonist of a horror movie has been a vividly scary, and yet easily spotted "monster", be it the shark from Jaws, Jason, Freddy, the Alien, and on and on. But look what happens when the alien from "The Thing" takes over a person: it looks, talks, and acts as an exact copy - how do you know who is human? How can you tell who is the Thing? This frantic unknowing, coupled with the already frail relationships between men that would never really associate with one another in real life but are forced to live in such close proximity under such harsh conditions only adds to the boiling tension between them, as fear, distrust, and paranoia creep into their every move, statement, and action. Yes, if someone among them is "the thing", a "watertight buddy system" as Ebert writes should be a fundamental shield against such an intruder - but what if they don't get along in the first place? What if no one trusts anybody? When no one can come to an agreement on just how to fight the unseen Thing, it's understandable that tempers flare when they start to die off. This character interaction is one of the main reasons that I feel the movie stands the test of time - it's not just about what the creature looks like, or where it is, but who it is, and how the others deal with it.

In addition to the characters, it is the intense setting of this horror film that succeeds in making The Thing such a classic. Against the unforgiving backdrop of a harsh winter storm in Antarctica, few other places aside from a bottomless abyss or the deepness of space can conjure up such monolithic feelings of dread, despair, and aloneness. Cut off from the outside world due to a non-functioning radio and severe location, the men are being hunted by a cunning and elusive predator. Yet even if they were to seek help, how could they get it? If they were to try and run, where would they go? Knowing that you're a thousand miles from anywhere, stuck in a freezing, frigid hell with an alien creature attempting to overtake you provides insurmountable emotional hurdles for anyone but the most hardy to get over, and is the perfect setting for this horror classic.

Lastly, do not for one minute overlook the music. With a soundtrack by the inimitable Ennio Morricone, the movie literally has scenes that are completely carried by sound alone. With dialogue at times as sparse as hope in the characters, the movie is a perfect vehicle for Mr. Morricone's masterpiece of chilling, eerie music. It is amazing to sit, watch, and listen, and see how a spartan attitude of "less is more" can take the simply underpinnings of a few violin strings and raise the hackles on your neck as you wait with dread for something to simply jump out - but it never comes. Instead, you sink deeper into a feeling of creepiness and fright as the music carries you on an emotional wave of loneliness and fear, providing a perfect companion to the ground-breaking visuals and tense, explosive acting.

It must also be said that the performances of star Kurt Russell, and supporting cast such as Keith David, Wilfred Brimley, and Charles Hallahan, are career-defining, especially Mr. Russell. All of the performances in this film are spot-on, with every actor making you truly believe that they are feeling the overwhelming pressure of who's real, and who's "The Thing", getting to them minute by frightening minute.

If you're a fan of genre-defining suspense, horror, and gore, the combined masterwork of John Carpenter, Ennio Morricone, Kurt Russell, screenplay writer Bill Lancaster, and author John W. Campbell to produce "The Thing" should absolutely not be missed. It's time you found out just "who goes there".

Where you can buy "The Thing":
1. From Amazon
2. From Borders
3. From Half

Source: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19820101/REVIEWS/201010349/1023
Source: http://www.enniomorricone.com/
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell