The Thing (1982)

Directed by: John Carpenter | 104 minutes | horror, science fiction, thriller | Actors: Kurt Russell, A. Wilford Brimley, TK Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, Thomas Waites

Also in ‘The Thing’ frequently used starting situations are used within the horror genre. The location, a scientific research station located at the North Pole, is remote and isolated from the outside world. Due to weather conditions, radio contact with the outside world is not possible, which means that no outside help can be called in, and there is an outside threat that threatens the survival of the team members. To face this common enemy, the team members have to rely on themselves and each other, but…. when the common enemy is in their own ranks as a perfect copy of one or more team members, relying on the closest team members can lead to unpleasant surprises. This is therefore an advantage for the Thing, which it makes optimal use of. Several times, the Thing breaks loose from one second to the next, throwing off various human disguises and cruelly killing several uninfected team members with the benefit of surprise. Both the team members and the viewer are unaware of who is and who is not infected, so that the fight against the enemy takes on a few extra dimensions for the viewer: “who is/are the Thing?”, “when will it strike?” , and “in what horrific way will it strike?”

After the first encounter with the Thing, the team’s biologist determines that it is an alien life form that takes over its victim on a cellular level and then causes its own body cells to imitate the newly acquired cells. In this way a perfect copy is created. A being with such body cells is not only bound by the appearance of its infected victim but can change form at any time taking on combinations and parts of previously imitated life forms. This of course screams for special effects that the viewer does not have to wait long for. When the Thing erupts in destructive fashion on several occasions, its otherworldly nature is undeniably manifest: razor-sharp rows of teeth in a splitting stomach that bite off a team member’s arms, claws and threads with heads on them rise from infected human bodies, a infected head splitting from a trunk and walking on a kind of jointed spider legs and with eyes on stalks, tentacles swinging around and caustic acids emanating from an infected dog’s body, an infected human head splitting in two , and various other terrestrial biological impossibilities. These special effects are beautifully portrayed and the gory way in which various team members are killed by the Thing make it clear to both the team members and the viewer that nothing good can be expected from the Thing and the thinned team has no choice but to fight it. to bind.

The characters and the roles are fixed. The most notable characters are the hero pilot MacReady (Kurt Russell) and the biologist Blair (A. Wilford Brimley). The heroic role of MacReady is also very emphatic. For reasons that are unclear, he is the leading figure that the other team members turn to from the start and who orders the official leader, as a matter of course, being passed by everyone. Another notable role is played by biologist Blair (A. Wilford Brimley) who is the first to realize the danger that has infiltrated their midst. He runs amok to kill the Thing if necessary by destroying the entire team, but is prematurely put out of action by the other team members. His insights are only later and after the necessary casualties adopted by MacReady and the by then few survivors, after which the remaining team members engage in the final and explosive battle with the Thing.

The other team members aren’t particularly noticeable. Their function is to gradually become infected or cleaned up by the Thing one after the other, and to portray how the team is weakened by mutual distrust, suspicion and (deliberate?) insinuating remarks (“he could be one of these things”, “whatever the hell you are”) , increasing the Thing’s chances of survival, which, of course, is precisely its intent (“it’s just what it wants, to put us against each other”).

Technology stands for nothing and the development of computers and software has gone very fast in recent decades … but it is still very remarkable that Blair uses a computer to calculate the probability that team members are infected by the Thing and how long the world population will be taken over by the Thing when it comes into contact with the inhabited world. Because where in the world in 1982 (and also today) was a computer program to be found that could make these predictions regarding an extraterrestrial life form that had crashed on Earth? In such a location? Under such circumstances? But oh well, with the magic that still hung around computers at the time, it was of course a perfect means to scientifically make it clear to the viewer what a danger the Thing was to all life on earth.. Incidentally, it is also exceptionally clever of the Thing that it turns out to be able to manufacture a mini-spaceship with parts from a destroyed helicopter.

Although ‘The Thing’ is no longer of recent date, it remains one of the better in the horror genre and can still compete with the horror films released in recent years. The special effects in themselves make this film worth watching, along with the questions “who is/are infected?”, “when and how does the Thing strike?” provide a significant dose of extra stress. This, coupled with the claustrophobic rooms and corridors of the research station and the oppressive music of Ennio Morricone, still make ‘The Thing’ one of the top and best-known films in the horror genre.