The Thing; A clip for the, confusingly titled, Prequel to John Carpenter’s classic ‘The Thing’ (updated with HD clip).

Bookmark this on Delicious

Well it’s not the best clip to be certain. Why they are always so insistent on showing the ‘Dude gets scared by colleague only to be super scared by the real killer / monster / Smurf clip742/a’? Is it just to confirm that “yes, it is going to be a scary movie”?

I've seen Aliens biatch!

Now the clip on its own certainly doesn’t confirm anything about the film one way or the other of course and as there have been two films based around the book “Who Goes There?” First we had the superb ‘cold war’ classic ‘The Thing From Another World.” A perfect example of the @commies are everywhere’ science fiction that Hollywood produced in that era; as square jawed as you’d like complete with “stupid” geniuses trying to work for the good of science, no matter the consequences to the average Joe and a faceless enemy who could go anywhere and destroy everything if you didn’t “keep watching the skies!”.  A significant change was made to the alien though; instead of a horrific creature who ate other animals (yes that includes people) to assume their identities and memories, this alien was instead a plant based life form that fed itself and its offspring on fresh, juicy blood. It was a hit and has gone down as a classic, well made film.

It's not an alien it's Commies damn it!

In 1982 John Carpenter made a not a remake and it seems set forth a tradition of confusing films for the series. The film is basically a far more faithful version of the Novella than the earlier film. With the intelligent, ambulatory, vampire plant       removed and the frightening shape shifter restored. But in changing the title to The Thing and using the font and title styling the film definitely works as, at least, a minor remake as well. The film was very much unappreciated in its time. Critically overlooked as merely a blood soaked attempt to cash in on Alien and suffering from being to horrific. It has, of course, joined the likes of Blade Runner (which is one of the films it was up against) as a film that was neither a commercial nor critical success upon release but has since become both. Recognised as one of the best Sci-Fi horrors ever made and enjoying success on video and DVD as well as a Video game sequel in 2002, comics and more books.

Arguably Russel's best role.

So we really shouldn’t be too harsh on the people behind this prequel; after Carpenter’s it’s not a remake, remake of The Thing from Another World. This film is not a remake or a reboot, but a prequel; the film makers have been pretty clear about that. Of course there’s annoyance that the film is falling out of step a little by placing so many Americans on “The Norwegians’” base and that ‘explosion’ of The Thing from the block of ice doesn’t really seem to fit in with what we know of the creatures ‘melted out’ resurrection, but only time will tell if this film is worthy of the previous two, and the book, or not.

Synopsis...

“Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. In the thriller The Thing, paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they're infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet. Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up. When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew's pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish. The Thing serves as a prelude to John Carpenter's classic 1982 film of the same name.”

I've seen Wrath of Khan and I'm not touching that!

Trailer...