John Carpenters The Thing


'The Thing' is a seminal SF horror movie from 1982 directed by John Carpenter. The eponymous thing is an alien monster sort of whatnot which sort of infects people (and animals) and takes them over; the taken-over people undergo weird shape-shifting shenanigans (growing random extra protuberances, sharp-toothed mouths in unexpected places, etc). Anyway, the thing crash-landed in the antarctic and got deep-frozen; meddling scientists (Norwegians or some such) thaw it out, and it gradually murders every living thing in sight until Kurt Russell stops it - or does he?.

A remake of the 1951 Howard Hawks film 'The Thing From Another World' (<imdb:title/0044121>). Possibly somewhat based on 'At The Mountains Of Madness'.

There's a scene where one of the scientists runs a computer simulation of what would happen if the thing got out of the antarctic and into the populated world; this looks a lot like the Zombie Infection Simulation.

This movie is the shit. -- TA

Those who appreciate a good bit of shape-horror are also advised to check out 'Tetsuo Iron Man?'.

Category Movie


Wed, 27 Aug 2003 00:12:04 GMT Front Page Recent Changes Message Of The Day