The Thing (2011)

In college, one night I caught a movie that had stayed off my radar for my formative years. John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). It was a great mix of shadow, paranoia, gore effects. I don't feel I'm over selling it that it's the perfect horror movie*.

When it came out in 1982 it was a box office failure. The movie starts with a dog being hunted by my people**. So, almost 30 years later you want to know what happened before the events of that movie? Well here it is.

The story of that first group in Antarctica is told in both a similar tone and characters. The movie is one part prequel one part remake. Gone are all the practical effects. In is the CGI. If the 1982 movie wasn't so good, I would probably thing more of this movie. But it lives under a dark shadow. As it were, it doesn't belong in the same breath as An American Werewolf in Paris or Blues Brothers 2000***.

The biggest complaint I have with the film is the way the monster acts. In the '82 version it wants to hide and only attacks when it knows it can win or is backed in a corner. In the 2011 movie it attacks and explodes and spears people. This is not the same monster. Which is disappointing because that was one of the scarier things about The Thing.

Did you enjoy it?
I would have enjoyed it more if I didn't love the 1982 movie so much.

Would you see it in theaters again?
No.

Would you buy it?
No.

Would you rent it?
No.

Would you watch it if you saw it was on TV?
Eh, maybe back to back with the '82 version on Netflix Instant


*Playing in Chicago this Friday and Saturday (see you there?)


**Norwegians, can't live with them, can't understand them so you shoot them in the eye.


***I didn't come up with that comparison. See what Harry Knowles thought of the movie.