THE THING (1982) - Movie Review

[Music] welcome back everyone I'm that guy Matt after seeing the recent polls and how much you guys have interacted with them it's quite obvious that all of you guys wanted to see John Carpenter's a thing so here we are released in 1982 and directed by John Carpenter the thing takes place in Antarctica at a scientific Outpost where a group discovers an alien that can not only mutate but also imitate other forms so the group has to band together to not only eliminate the creature but find out who is still human the idea for the film was based on the novel who goes there by John Campbell there was even a version before John Carpenter's version called the thing from another world and of course there was also the 2011 prequel that showcases some of the events that took place before the events of this film now it should come as no surprise obviously that I do love this film and many people love it as well but would you be surprised if I told you that the thing actually was critically panned upon its release back in 1982 we'll get into details later on but for the purposes of this the thing is a dark film and no I'm not referring to the lighting here it's just a dark Grim telling of a group of men slowly being picked off by an alien the movie was also really Gory for its time due to the excellent practical work by Rob botin who if you didn't know was indeed hospitalized due to his work on this film which goes to explain why the Practical work is often praised for how good it looks lastly there's the tone this movie has an underlying feeling of hopelessness throughout you're hoping the characters Will Survive but this movie tells it like it is you don't know who will make it out who will get killed and who was going to die so I'm sure many people were off-put by this because they were so used to seeing movie characters triumph over the evil and save the day hell one of the most polarizing reviews came from the co-director of the original film Kristen neie they stated in the review for John Carpenter's film If You Want Blood go to the slaughterhouse damn that's a bit harsh isn't it despite all the backlash the movie nowadays is considered one of the best horror films ever made and for good reason it's a genuinely well-made film with a lot of tension a likable cast and some of the best monster effects ever put to screen I think I've laid out a pretty good foundation so far are so without further Ado let's go ahead and take a look at the thing and see why this film is beloved by so many horror fans alike the film opens with your stereotypical Flying Saucer landing on Earth which is not only a nod to older space Invasion films of its time but is also a way for the film to subvert your expectations trust me they won't be visited by Marvin the Martian we then see a helicopter chasing after a dog but we're unsure as to why we're then introduced to the crew of the Antarctic science research facility engaging in activities like reading and pingpong or in the case of mccre played by Kurt Russell of course is drinking whiskey and playing against a chess computer however the game is cut short when the computer cheats and mccre responds in the most hilarious manner my move toight six Checkmate chea [ __ ] back with the helicopter and dog it reaches the crew members and immediately takes a liking to them the man is yelling what seems to be a bunch of gibberish but is actually speaking a region warning the crew that the dog actually is dangerous the man starts opening fire but he accidentally injures one of the crew members in the process as a result a man named Gary ret retaliates and shoots the man in the head killing him with no signs for help mccre takes a few members with him to investigate a nearby camp that may be home to the Norwegian Riflemen but not before we see the dog approach one of the men now I just want to say off the bat I love this scene and I'll explain why first things first the actor and the silhouette is actually not being played by any of the original cast so it could literally be any of the members of the crew we have no idea who it could be and secondly for a movie that's almost 40 years old or at least over 40 years old it has this sense of mystery that to this day a lot of people still like to speculate about and I love that about the thing it just makes it interesting for repeat watches we jump back to mccre and copper who investigate the Norwegian base just from the outside alone we know something terrible has happened and that's confirmed even more as they find the crew members killed and the whole place is in disarray not to mention the big block of ice in the storage unit oh my God the real horror of this movie is Fred Flintstone and he's pissed he's gotten out of the ice and now he's upset after investigating the inside they are just about to leave but not before they find a mangled corpse in the snow now as I mentioned in the beginning of this review there actually was a 2011 prequel that did address the events of this Norwegian camp but for the purposes of this review I will not be covering the prequel however if you guys aren't interested I can recover that in a different review so for the time being we're just not going to address it but just know that if you guys do want a review of the 2011 prequel I can do it so just let me know down in the comments below they pack it up and head back to the base where we get to see it in all its Glory I mean yeah the effects do look disgusting but that just goes to show how well of a job Rob Bine did seriously I don't think I've seen practical effects in a horror movie look this good especially for a film like I said that's over 40 years old the crew are obviously disgusted by what they're seeing so Blair is requested to begin an autopsy at first glance it seems normal Blair even states that it contains a set of ordinary human organs they think nothing of it and the crew decides just to take it easy for the rest of the evening Clark takes the dog back into the kennel where the other dogs Remain the dogs start barking at it and it's here where we witness the dog changes into some kind of multi-limb monstrosity mccre hears some noise coming from the kennel and signals the crew asking for child's to bring him the flamethrower mccre starts shooting at the Beast before it tries to escape but before it can do so child's torches it the following morning Blair does an oopsy on the now dead creature and is shocked to find the remains of their dogs inside of it you see what we're talking about here is an organism that imitates other life forms when this thing attacked our dogs it tried to digest them absorb them I'm not sure if it's a good idea to be sucking on your pencil like that Blair unless of course this is supposed to be like a red herring either way it's just gross Blair then questions if Clark had noticed anything odd about the dog before the attack and he responds with a no Blair assumes it's nothing but the men still want answers so mccre and some of the crew head out once again to investigate what seems to be a large sinkhole but it ends up being the large saucer from the intro they hypothesize that it's been out here for at least 100,000 years and shortly after they locate a large block of ice that was removed implying that something was frozen and eventually thought back at the base McCrea relays this information to the crew with some calling his explanation [ __ ] I just kep cannot believe any of this voodo [ __ ] Blair however decides to do some research of his own and comes to the realization that some of the crew may already have been infected and if the thing were to be released into civilization it could wipe out all of humanity within 3 years this scene is pretty effective at just showcasing how deadly the thing actually could be if it got out into public not to mention the fact that we don't even see the thing on screen and yet the movie is still filled with a lot of tension I just love it windows and Bings then move the corpse into a closet mccre is about to go to bed but not before fuches has a talk with him fuch makes the suggestion that there's still cellular activity within the remains of the corpse suggesting that they're all still in danger and once Windows goes back to the closet it's confirmed when Bings is being absorbed by the thing the crew find him outside and immediately torch him even when he's dead however the crew doesn't take any chances so they pour more fuel onto the corpse and torch it once more afterwards mccre sees Blair jump out of the helicopter so he goes to investigate it turns out that Blair completely disabled the chopper the tractor and kill the rest of the dogs destroying all the communication servers and threatening the crew if they get near him the crew managed to to tackle Blair and knock him unconscious what the hell was that did fuches get punched or something Blair is then locked into the tool ship for the crew safety but as mccre is about to leave Blair urges him to watch over clark now I'm not exactly sure if Blair was actually telling the truth here about Clark actually being infected or not but I do like how he actually is projecting his actual fear back onto mccre and in turn the rest of the crew and as a result no one can trust anyone now because any one of them could be the thing it's just again great tension and I love this so much copper suggest the most viable way to be sure is to do a blood serum test and then they'll know who is who however the thing doesn't want to be discovered just yet so it sabotages the leftover blood bags in the fridge that or it's probably just scared of needles I mean [ __ ] I've given about seven pints of blood in my lifetime and the whole reason I started giving blood in the first place was actually to get over my fear of needles and I'm still [ __ ] terrified of needles so this movie is just speaking to me on a personal level the men interrogate each other trying to find out who did this in the first place one of them notes the door wasn't broken into so someone had access to the keys the only two men that have access are Gary and copper but copper retaliates by saying I don't see how as soon as I'm finished I return it right away that's such an accusatory look now all we need is the [ __ ] objection sound effect from Ace Attorney I don't see how as soon as I'm finished I return it right away objection the men begin to argue with one another with Windows even trying to grab a shotgun from the Armory Gary then holds him a gunpoint urging him to put the gun down it's here where the men decide that they need more level-headed individuals to take charge so they appoint mccre as the leader with then jump to mccre who's recording a tape he States what they've been dealing with and they're all tired and can't trust each other but quickly goes back and rolls over that section of the tape real quickly I want to dissect this for a second because I think it's pretty interesting on mcc's part now I'm sure he'd like everyone to survive obviously but he probably doesn't see that as the outcome so just in case the whole operation goes sour he wants whoever finds the tape to be ready for the thing instead of including the bit about being tired he includes Vital Information about the characters and what it's capable of doing and that's why I think mccre is a great leader he's thinking about the greater good the power then goes out and the men go to investigate but Upon returning NS finds a piece of mcc's jacket the crew assumes he's now the thing and try to Corner him but Norris gets hurt in the process copper is then released in Ord to help him but of course Norris isn't responding clear clear funnily enough when I was actually rewatching this movie while taking notes you know for this review my mother actually was watching it alongside me for the first time and when this scene actually happened she jumped in her chair it was quite funny I always like seeing people's reactions to the first time that they see this movie mccre quickly torches the thing but the thing manages to slip away and reform once again Palmer then speaks on the audience's behalf by saying this got to be [ __ ] kidding yeah thankfully this doesn't break the tension all that much the movie knows when to have a good balance of light-hearted humor and tension just as they're about to perform the blood test however mccre shoots Clark as he tries to jump him he then heats up a cop recoil knowing the thing will show itself when it feels threatened this is just another exercise by the filmmakers of how to pull off great tension in a horror film Windows is clean so he puts on the flamethrower as back up for mccre when they get to Palmer however that's when things change now I don't mean to sound like a broken record but these effects are just so damn cool I haven't even mentioned the fact that the transformation looks painful as we see the face deform it just looks so gross yet so cool the thing bites windows before mccre quickly torches it then destroys it with an explosion altogether they finish the tests and Gary calmly explains how he feels about his current predicament I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TI to this [ __ ] cou now I do have to say if I was to Levy any level of criticism it would probably be this one scene because on one hand yes it is funny but at the same time it does break the tension which was so fluid up until this point so I don't know maybe this is just me I didn't think it was all that funny to begin with but that's just me mccre NS and Gary go to the shed to check on Blair but he's nowhere to be seen after doing some investigating they discover the thing has been constructing a new spaceship if this doesn't demonstrate how Sinister this thing is I don't know what will the men destroyed the saucer and decided that they can't let the thing live because the thing will inevitably freeze itself and when the rescue te comes to find them the whole thing will start over so they decide to plant bombs throughout the facility which hopefully will stop the thing altogether not long after we see Blair attack Gary and kill him NS goes to investigate but is unfortunately killed too finally mccre is faced with a thing and we get one of the best Liners in Horror history yeah [ __ ] you too the thing blows up and mccre is now out in the open with almost no hope left it isn't until child shows up and they question each other about their whereabouts ultimately they're both too exhausted to fight each other and decide there's only one thing left to do wait here for a little while see what happens the film ends with a facility in Flames the movie theme playing in the background implying something has survived now there has been a long form debate about what the ending actually means or who is or isn't the thing is it child's is it mccre is it both and while John Carpenter himself has given his personal answer I'd prefer to keep it to speculation after all I find speculation to be more more fun sometimes anyway that was John Carpenter's The Thing and I love this film a lot of people do and I would be hardpressed to not say that this is probably John Carpenter's best film if we're being honest for a movie that's over 40 years old the thing is a testament to what horror films are capable of being it's filled with a cast of memorable characters an interesting and terrifying premise and practical effects that put modern CGI to shame I'm not saying that CGI doesn't have its place in the industry but without going into a lot of detail it was one of the many things that the 20 11 prequel was criticized for I mean seriously how do we go from this to this simply put the thing is just filled with a lot of mystery Intrigue and has a lot of rewatch value I remember the second time I watched this movie I was trying to keep track of who was who and also decide for who was the thing and wasn't the thing the acting all around was pretty solid with Kurt Russell stealing the show as he normally does if we were to point out any of the issues they're minimal of course but I do think some lines can break what were otherwise excellent moments of tension like the blood test scene for instance that being said those are npic and they don't take away from the bigger picture overall the thing is a masterclass in horror film making it hits the nail on what many horror fans love and it's easily one of John Carpenter's best films if not his best film in my opinion however just don't go into it with a full stomach if you're at all queasy you may regret it later on but hey I'm a Gore Hound so it comes with a territory real quick I actually wanted to take a moment to thank you guys all for subscribing and watching I mean the channel has just been doing very well recently we recently just passed 50 subscribers and we also just recently hit a lot of likes and views on the videos so you know to anyone and everyone who's watched my content I just want to say thank you guys very much you guys are all very uh supportive and I love you guys for it so if you guys have any more videos or recommendations for movies that you want me to review um put them down below in the description or the comment section excuse me and of course I will get to them when I can so until next time guys this has been that guy Matt and I will see you guys all next time take care e

Channel: ThatGuyMatt

Views: 747

Keywords: media review, media, thatguymatt, video games, movies, game reviews, movie reviews

Id: IqlAMV2JEUY

Length: 14min 9sec (849 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 15 2024