So, we've got an alien--we just need a NAME for it...
Okay, here’s the thing about, um, “The Thing”…it does what it’s supposed to do for its intended audience. Nothing more, nothing less. I am not going to waste space comparing this to any other version that’s been made because,well,who cares? You’ve already decided whether The Thing is, um, your thing or not.
It’s certainly well-crafted for what amounts to a genre flick, with great sets and effects—a group of folks in Antarctica discover a, sorry, THING, frozen in ice and obviously from a galaxy far, far away. As usual, a know-it-all assh*le scientist lets his vanity get ahead of his better judgment and holy hell is unleashed by this..whatever it is, that body-snatches from the inside, and spews out of human bodies in ways that make ALIEN look like an 8-bit videogame. And since this whatever it is takes on the look and form of the characters in the film, we don’t know (and neither do they) who is going to turn out to be IT and not themselves. In other words—just like any Zombie movie you’ve ever seen. That is the fun of it, and the simplicity of it.
Self-knowing humor helps out as well–in one scene, it looks like the filmmakers are going for the old “The black guy gets killed first” move and the audience starts laughing, obviously getting the joke, without a single word being said.
My favorite part is where the lady scientist and another dude get flame-throwers and just burn the livin’ sh*t out of stuff for a good while. I have totally put “Flame Thrower” at the top of my Christmas wish list for this year.
Is the movie any good? Hmm. Let me ask you this—do you like seeing stuff get burned up and monsters getting inside of bodies and popping out in extremely inconvenient ways? You do? Then go see it.
“The Thing” is a sci-fi horror film with plenty of death, fire, and special effects. An alien and a spacecraft are discovered in Antarctica. Will remind you in many ways of “Alien”.
GRADE = “C+”