Over the course of his career, John Carpenter has dealt with several movies about the end of the world. Collectively they're known as the apocalypse trilogy. The first film in this unofficial, similiarly themed grouping is The Thing, a remake of the Howard Hawkes produced The Thing From Another World. Like the original, it tells of a group of Americans, stationed on a research base in Antarctica who happen across an aggressive creature from outer space. Unlike the 1951 film, the creature isn't a Frankenstein's monster space vegetable but a lethal shape changing immitator.
What's so good?
Everything. Carpenter's vision is at it's most refined. There's the Hawksian, all male ensemble. Plus you have the Carpenter outsider in Kurt Russell's McCready...ready to make the tough decisions because he's not close enough to the rest of the group to care about pissing them off.
The tone is very serious with none of the dumb, bullshit quality that crept into the directors work in later years, making the events seem even more real. The remote location emphasises the isolation of the individuals, not only from civilization, but from each other.
Moriconne's score (practically a Carpenter rip off, thankfully) is utterly bleak and forboding. Cinematographer Dean Cundy delivers his career best work, mixing an unflashy gritiness with vivid, cold blues and frequent camera flares.
Rob Bottin's make up effects are pretty much the most imaginative and most convincing captured on film. Only American Werewolf can match the jaw dropping splendor of Bottin's grotesque creations.
If there has to be a best scene (and this has many...oh so many) then it has to be the blood test. The movie's dramatic tension is built from the notion that the killer alien could be hidden as one of the good guy's and it's anti-hero Kurt that's found a way to detect the monster. Who'd have thought a hot, bare wire and a petrie dish could cause a rectum to poucker so much?
The ending is a classic, commenting on the distrust that is unescapable in human nature. Even with just two men standing at the climax, there's still the threat of violence.
I might have mentioned this before, but there's a certain test for all great stories. Even if you've seen the movie a million times before, and you know how each scene is going to play out...if you still find yourself hoping for a better outcome, despite KNOWING the opposite, the movie has got you. Hook, line and sinker. Even after they've burn the dogs, or detected the immitators with a blood test, I keep hoping that it's over. That our heroes have prevailed. Of course, the genius is, they haven't. And in The Thing's case, they won't.
What's not so good?
Nothing. John Carpenter's best film. A perfect movie.
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