Space is a big place, and the idea that some sort of creature, capable of assimilating itself into other living beings, effectively taking them over, could have fallen from the stars aboard its ship and been buried — and waiting — for some 100,000 years beneath the snows of Antarctica isn’t that far fetched — especially not in the type of quasi-realistic worlds John Carpenter is so famous for.
Screenwriter Bill Lancaster‘s adaptation of John Campbell’s 1938 novella Who Goes There, The Thing takes a stripped down look at sci-fi horror. Rather than looking into the expansive nothingness the alien creature came from, the film follows the story of the small, unlucky band of American scientists who ultimately find it. Through the interactions of this tense and closely-knit band of researchers and their helicopter pilot (played by Kurt Russell, of course), we watch as first disaster and then abject terror unfold after the alien life form infiltrates their facility and launches into a murderous rampage. Soon, due to the alien’s ability to assimilate into humans, it becomes impossible to distinguish friend from foe, and the dark, cramped quarters of the research base become a death trap. Any hope of escape is thwarted by the unforgiving Antarctic waste, and so the team must find some way to bring the alien’s actions to an end. Couple this with a heaping dose of gore and you have one wild, messy tale.
The Thing
1982
dir. John Carpenter
109 min.
Part of the ongoing series: H.P. Lovecraft 125th Birthday Celebration
Double feature w/ Hellboy!