THE THING - archive from 18th October 2011.

I had to see 'THE THING' last night - the 2011 version of the 1982 John Carpenter Cult Classic that sits up there in my pantheon of all time classic films. Going into this I did wonder what this was going to be all about, and is it a sequel, is it a remake, a reboot or a reimagining? Well it's none of these really, and this time around it is Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen - a Dutch film-maker, Writer and Producer, and here we have a movie that has all the characteristics of Carpenters earlier masterpiece, many of his touchstones, but really, nothing new!

This is in fact a a prequel set in a Norwegian geological sub-station in the Antarctic the week immediately before Carpenters rendering of his story thirty years earlier. As said, there is little new here and you could almost describe it as a scene for scene retelling of its 1982 predecessor except that these events predate that by seven days and here we have that geological sub-station crew in the frozen wasteland discovering a huge alien space craft that seems to have been buried deep in the snow for eons. Upon the arrival of expert palaeontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) the crew are taken to the base by supply helicopter pilot Sam Carter (Joel Edgerton) and after a briefing and a viewing of the space craft the other crew members advise that they also discovered the body of an alien buried in the ice in the vicinity of the stricken ship. Needless to say the body comes back to the base encased in a block of ice (nice segwey to Carpenters film), where it is kept at sub-zero temperatures in an outdoor shed of sorts.

Needless to say our pesky alien fiend from another world escapes later that night and in so doing kills first a patrol dog and then a crew member who is promptly torched along with The Thing so dispensing with it once and for all! Yeah right! When they have the burnt out remains of the alien body on the slab in the lab they come to realise that its cells are still very much alive and beginning to imitate and mutate into those of its most recent victim. 

If you have seen Carpenter's 1982 film you will know that one by one the crew of the sub-station get picked off, and it all ends horribly for its victims and there is much mutation, gore, viscera and creative creatures that make for a very entertaining and creative Sci-Fi Horror. Because of this, the 2011version is quite predictable and the formula largely follows that laid out by JC way back when despite the obvious advancement of film technology, computer imagery, make-up and effects since the early 80's. For all of this I have to say Carpenters film still stands the test of time, and I watched it the next day after seeing this to see how this latest rendition melds into the earlier film, and on that note it does a reasonably good job.

There are no real genuine scares here either although the story is effectively told & the cast believable. You will also find no big names here other that the two listed above, the rest of the crew are likely to be better known in their native Norway/Sweden/Finland locales than outside of it.  The last scene frame by frame leads straight into Carpenter's opening and so for generating that degree of continuity between films thirty years apart is a reasonably solid effort it must be said. See it but be prepared to ask 'why' when the credits roll though.

In the final analysis this film cost US$38M to make and it clawed back just US$28M and it was nominated for four awards. Compare this to Carpenter's 1982 film which cost US$15M to make and made US$20M in the US alone. Rent the 2011 film out on BluRay or DVD and watch it back to back with the 1982 film for the full experience.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-