The Thing (1982) Reivew

The Thing is the first film in the “Apocalypse Trilogy” directed by one of my favourite horror directors, John Carpenter staring Kurt Russell as a member of a Antarctic research facility which is terrorised by a alien life form that can take the shape of any organism it comes into contact with, creating a perfect replica, including the people in the facility.

The film begins with a tense and uneasy feeling of mystery and suspicion, you knew something was up right from the get-go and that accompanied by a great but simple 80’s synthesiser score gave you goosebumps which proves you don’t always need an orchestra to make an effective score.

We are then introduced to the characters that at first blend together due to the number of them which makes it hard to actually grow to like the characters and because there’s like 10 guys the film doesn’t have time to develop all of them. Thankfully when they begin to die off and the cast gets more contained and you got to know the characters a lot better. It was fun to see them interact and how each person dealt with the danger they were in, giving an interesting look at the human race as a whole and what we’re capable of in dangerous situations. Most of the dialogue was very well done also with some pretty great writing and performances.

While the cinematography felt quite limited there was still some well done camerawork, especially when combined with the superb lighting you got some stunning shots, mostly near the end of the film, visually aiding to create a tense atmosphere that sent shivers down your spine and even had me on the edge of my seat. As well as tension the film achieved a great atmosphere of seclusion and isolation, that with the paranoia that anyone could be the monster made for a extremely thrilling movie.

And of course I cannot write this review without mentioning the stunning practical effects, to think this was all made by one guy living off soft drinks and sweets who had to then get checked in to the hospital for exhaustion was just mind blowing. There are very few films that, after 30 years still hold up like the effects in The Thing have. Wildly and grotesquely imaginative and stunningly executed.

Overall The Thing is probably one of the best horror films from the 80’s if not all time, intense and effective this film will have you on the edge of your seat and constantly guessing with nightmare inducing creature effects this film was fantastic.

8/10