Notes on John Carpenter’s “The Thing”
theparisreview.org
theparisreview.org
And yet the monster scenes don't overshadow the human drama, the continuous buildup, the claustrophobia you feel from there being no escape.
The Thing is such a great movie, and definitely my favourite horror movie.
It's how a horror movie should be made.
There's a reason sans-serif black-on-white is the default, and why people ask for it. It's easy to read no matter what. That's why Readability exists. And for what it's worth, at first glance I find this page difficult to read as well on a 1080p 15" monitor. The font makes me have to focus on one line and one word at a time, where in stock sans serif I can skim. That's what happens when you try to translate text that works fine in a novel and put it on a computer screen. You would never see a newspaper or a textbook printed in this fashion. Because it's harder to read.
Someone sounds a little jaded.
I will admit, while not a horror story, I did have the latest Hobbit movie on my mind. I think I could cut 1/3 from from the latest movie and not impact the story. If anything, probably bring it inline with the book.
“Platforms: PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox”
And yes, my town gets a lot of snow, typically around five-six metres. The "Antarctic base" in the movie was just a short drive away up a road that led to an old mine site[2]. We used to get rides up there and hike around when we were kids.
This isn't your typical "smart" people doing stupid things. This is a bunch of smart and capable people completely overmatched by something far beyond their understanding.
It's darn near a perfect movie.
I absolutely hate movies populated by the smart-stupid-doers. For a low budget example, "Deep Star Six" is basically a comedy because of it.
I'll give you an example: Alien. Literally all that film is is "they go down to this planet, a spider fucks a guy's face, and then a monster kills everyone." If you're not scared by that stuff, you get nothing out of that film, because there is nothing else that happens. The second one is better, something happens between the characters.
And yeah, I feel this way about The Thing.
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/04.13/01-winterover.htm...
"Shortly after the last plane leaves, the winter-overs gather in the main dining room, the Galley, for a showing of the science fiction movie "The Thing," about an alien that attacks researchers in an isolated Antarctic base. "
The winter personnel are physically isolated from the rest of the world between mid-February and late October.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%E2%80%93Scott_South_Po...
So far no one here has mentioned that the whole "thing" is based on the John W Campbell story "Who Goes There": http://www.scaryforkids.com/who-goes-there-by-john-w-campbel...
Carpenter's movie is great in part because it's so true to the source material.
Anyone who has access to the DVD/ Blu Ray should also check out the commentary track with John Carpenter and Kurt Russel. It is great.
I feel that "Suspiria" and "Don't Look Now" are actually the best horror films ever made, but de gustibus non est disputandum, as they say.
Fans looking for more behind the scenes stuff about the movie should check out "The Thing: Terror Takes Shape", about the making of the film, with much of the cast and principal crew included. The whole film is on YouTube [1], and also on several releases of the movie.
Also highly recommended is the site by one of the producers, Stuart Cohen [2]. It's a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes info, photos, rambling gossip and old-fashioned war stories from the set.
> Carpenter’s Thing, for its part, discouraged the future of dog whispering, if not mankind in general. Running dog-Thing was played by Jed, a half wolf that neither growled nor barked. Richard Masur, who played the station dog handler, remembers how Jed would just give you “that look” when he grew uncomfortable on the set. That Thing look. So watch Jed closely. Watch Jed pad down empty hallways. Jed nosing the door open, looking out of windows. Jed listening to Stevie Wonder.
> In the film, Wilford Brimley’s Dr. Blair supposes this while performing an autopsy on Norwegian Two-faced Thing, his eraser head traveling directly from an astro-parasitic entity to his own bottom lip. A clear violation of Thing health code.
> Rob Bottin, who played the ghost of a vengeful seagoing leper in The Fog, was in charge of special effects for The Thing. ... Bottin would do such a thorough job—literally ending up inside the Thing, for the finale—that he’d check himself into a hospital after the shoot completed.
> Meanwhile, I’m left wondering if the Thing can retain the dream memories of those it absorbs, turning to Freaks and Geeks for answers. For it was the great leveler Millie Kentner who once cried, “Life is not that dog’s dream!”
I was able to follow the author's meaning in parts but it's certainly challenging.
The writer's got voice. Good for him. Now tell me what you plan on saying and then say it. Don't tease me with one thing in a headline and then drag me through ten minutes of reading stream-of-consciousness. E-gads what a mess.
http://howtowreckanicebeach.com/?page_id=16
"a former columnist for The Wire, writes frequently about hip-hop and popular music."
And I don't have the wish to compare his other writing with this.
Also highly recommended is the site by one of the producers, Stuart Cohen [2]. It's a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes info, photos, rambling gossip and old-fashioned war stories from the set.
Submitters: it's against the rules to rewrite titles, except when the original is misleading or linkbait.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
(Submitted title was "“The Thing” – The film that nearly sabotaged John Carpenter’s career". We changed it to the doc title.)