The Thing is a masterpiece of Sci-fi/Horror. Despite a universal panning by critics at release it grew as a cult classic and was eventually recognized by critics as one of the best examples of Sci-fi/horror ever. Directed by the legendary John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, and many others. The movie had a hard road to theaters and it's condemnation by critics was described by John as the worst disappointment of his life. Let's dive into what makes this movie great and look into the struggles of the people who made it.
Let's start with Rob Bottin's amazing special effects. The Thing features great practical effects that still hold up very well today. Every form of the creature, every insane way it kills people and things was actually done. You couldn't just imagine it and wait for it to render, real people spent countless hours designing, building and perfecting these amazing effects. To accomplish such a feat without CGI is truly one of the greatest feats of special effects. On the topic of special effects the original budget given by Universal was only 200,000 dollars. This was later upped to 750,000 dollars by Universal after an appeal from the crew. Despite the increase John had to personally ask a studio executive for the last 100,000 dollars they needed to film the last scene involving the Thing. Associate producer Larry Franco was key to upping the special effects budget by helping to cut costs in other areas of filming. All told the effects for the movie ended up going 1.5 million dollars over budget. Despite what universal may have thought at the time, it was money well spent. But effects can only take you so far, let's talk about the story.
The story of The Thing is a loose adaptation of a novella called Who Goes There? It is also a remake of a movie called The Thing from Another World! though it was not considered a faithful adaptation of the story. Production on The Thing began in the early 70's and was envisioned as a more faithful adaptation of the story. After going through several directors and writers it finally fell to John Carpenter and Bill Lancaster to direct and write respectively. John had written screenplays in the past but was feeling burned out as an author and wanted to leave the writing to someone else. When Bill came on board he found that the previous scripts had, despite the goal of the remake, stayed way too close to the plot of the original movie. He quickly began a full rewrite and after a few months he met John in California to discuss the script and make any necessary changes. Originally the Thing was hidden for most of the movie but input from Bottin made them reconsider and the final script was born. The biggest change from the original story was the ending(which I won't spoil) but suffice it to say John wanted a darker ending. And of course the effects and the plot are well supported by the soundtrack.
The score of The Thing was composed by Ennio Morricone with some small contributions from John. This is a bit of a change of pace as John and his band often recorded the soundtracks for his movies. He wanted the movie to have a European musical feel. John ended up choosing Ennio because he had played his music at his wedding. Ennio recorded two scores, one orchestral and one synth. John choose the synth score( of course he did) and proceeded to record a few additions of his own. All of these elements mentioned above came together to make an excellent movie.
The Thing is definitely worth seeing, if you haven't seen it go watch it now. If you have seen it go watch it again. No one is really sure why The Thing was reviewed so harshly on it's release. Some speculate that is was because America was in the midst of a recession and the dark tone was off-putting. Others say it was that E.T. was in it's second week of release and was a more family friendly film. It may have also been the R-rating, making it hard for teens to get in without a parent. Personally I think it is because people often react badly to something great. When you see something so much better than anything you have seen before your initial reaction is to doubt it and defend what you know. The same thing happened with some critics when Star Wars was released. The Thing was just so good people couldn't take it. Go Watch It!!!!!!!
