Vintage Horror Review: The Thing (1982)

With the utter disaster known as 2011's The Thing being released this past week, I figured I'd skip that terrible prequel and rewatch the original masterpiece.

The Thing (which is a remake of The Thing From Another World) tells the tale of a group of researchers in the frozen planes of Antarctica. The team, led by Kurt Russell as MacReady, stumble upon a dead team of former researchers and a strange artifact buried deep within the snow. Soon, members of the team are dying off....or are they? The question of who is or who isn't human lingers over the isolated research station in the middle of the frost, and soon it's an every-man-for-himself battle for humanity.

The Thing is, in my opinion, one of the greatest horror films ever made. It is so deeply scary and compelling and really conveys the feelings of isolation in the arctic wasteland.

One of the most impressive things about The Thing is how well it really makes you feel how alone the characters are. One of the reasons this feeling is conveyed so effectively is the chilling soundtrack by none other than Ennio Morricone, known for his Spaghetti-western soundtracks. Morricone's soundtrack lacks the fast-paced, high pitched songs that are a staple in most horror movies of the 80's, instead, it creates a very haunting atmosphere, letting the story play out without the sudden interruption of a Psycho-esque string effect. Morricone sets the mood of the film with a soft, low soundtrack, letting the dialogue and actions on screen be what scares the viewer, rather than startling bursts of high pitched orchestra music.

Along with that, The Thing falls into a genre of horror films that I truly love due to their no nonsense approach to what is essentially a creature-feature: It never truly embodies the monster, leaving the titular "thing" extremely mysterious. A lot of monster films that try to keep the creature a mystery fail to do it for long enough (Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Super 8), and as soon as the monster is revealed, it loses that scare factor that audiences were looking forward too. The Thing, however, never reveals what this creature really looks like when it is not in the form of another being, and also never explains if "The Thing" is an actual monster or some sort of strange airborne disease or creature.

The Thing perfectly pits man-against-man, which also contributes to how scary the film is. As much as you can condemn MacReady for some of his more aggressive actions, it forces you to think about what you would do in his situation. The internal conflicts within each character really bring the film to life, deeply developing each team member in a very short amount of time.

The ambiguous ending of the film is another thing that makes it such a truly great movie. The main problem that I have with the new prequel is that anyone who's seen the original already knows how it ends...with every member of the previous research team dead, so what's the point? To cash in on a classic film? I can't see 2011's The Thing being anything but an hour and a half of different actors redoing the same scenes as the original film except all ending up dead. It's just stupid. The original film was one of those few movies that leaves you truly thinking when it ends, where the new version will leave you thinking about how much money you wasted on your ticket. You can't even compare the two.

To conclude this piece, I barely even need to say anything. The Thing is one of the greatest horror films ever made and if you haven't seen it, make sure you do as soon as possible.

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Red State: Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see Kevin Smith's Red State when it was in theaters due to its very limited release. However, Netflix recently released the film on instant.

Kevin Smith is one of my favorite non-horror directors who is mostly known for his comedy films, so when I heard about him taking on the horror genre, I was both excited and skeptical.

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Netflix signs multi-year licensing agreement with The Walking Dead

I don't know about you guys, but I'm a faithful Netflix user despite recent subscription changes and whatnot, so I thought it was pretty cool that Season 1 of The Walking Dead is now streaming on Netflix's instant service. The show was, as most fans know, incredible. Although, a lot of people missed out on Season 1 when it was actually airing on TV (me being one of those people, who immediately bought and watched the DVD) so now, through Netflix, the show is easier to catch up on before the upcoming season.

Although this isn't huge breaking news, I just thought it was cool to see such a great show become more available to those fans interested in seeing what all the hype is about, and preparing for Season 2 which begins on October 16, 2011.

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American Horror Story: Bring the Scares

 In a world filled with a lot of really bad horror television shows, it's nice to be pleasantly surprised when one good one comes along. 

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