BY EMERSON LAYNE

The Thing (1982) is a science-fiction horror movie directed by John Carpenter, who is acclaimed for the Halloween movie series. The Thing grossed $20.84 million worldwide on an estimated $15 million budget. At the time of its release, the movie didn’t resonate with its audience, who wanted a more optimistic tone compared to the movie’s nihilistic tone. In the modern day, The Thing is known as a horror movie classic and a pioneer of the body horror genre. 

The Thing takes place in Antarctica, where the viewer follows a research team. Soon after encountering a manic helicopter crew trying to kill a sled dog, the helicopter pilot, MacReady, and the doctor, Dr. Cooper, travel to a nearby Norwegian outpost looking for answers. Inside the Norwegian outpost, they find that the Norwegian team found something underneath the ice, that being a massive spaceship and an alien specimen that seems to have escaped. The sled dog turns out to be a shapeshifting alien who takes the form of its victims when they are infected, attacking the team’s other sled dogs and humans, infecting them as well. MacReady takes the lead of the group, to figure out who is still human and who isn’t, spurring off a gory battle of paranoia-ridden men stranded in Antarctica with vicious creatures from the cosmos. 

For an 80’s movie, the practical effects were amazing, especially with the monster designs and how gory they can get in the movie. One stand out of the monsters was the sled dog turning into its true form, showing how quick the monster can change and how disturbingly realistic it can get. Another amazing aspect of the movie is the paranoia, trying to figure out who’s human and who’s not, while you sit at the edge of your seat waiting for the monster to reveal itself. A great scene of this is when MacReady has the majority of the team tied up to test who’s human and who’s not. MacReady does this by taking a sample of everyone’s blood and touching each sample with a hot wire. MacReady’s theory is that the blood would have a violent reaction to the wire, like a captured animal trying to escape the thing hurting it. And when the monster is revealed to be Palmer, everything falls into chaos as the monster reveals itself and the tied up members try to escape from it. 

The general message the movie tries to convey is how paranoia and fear can affect a person’s behaviors, especially when it comes to viruses. This is shown through how distrustful everyone is with each other, even when the person they are distrustful of is actually human. This is best shown when MacReady returns from outside and takes everyone hostage to try and figure out who’s human. Everyone on the crew points blame and doubt on each other to the point where Clark gets fatally shot after attempting to harm MacReady with a scalpel, inadvertently revealing that he is human. 

The movie itself is quite enjoyable for any horror fan wanting to watch some horror classics, especially being one of the most memorable body horror movies of all time. Just make sure to know who your friends are when watching, things might turn a bit gory if they aren’t human. 

Rating: 8.7/10