The Thing

Yes, The Thing is yet another movie where a slimy, tentacled monster travels millions of miles through space to arrive on Earth, just to leap out of dark shadows and scream at people before it eats them. But, the movie is better made than you might expect. The effects are strong (and quite gory), the acting is better than we usually get in these kind of movies, and it's generally well made. It's not great, but for the Halloween season, it will definitely do.

Even though the film shares the same title and basic plot of John Carpenter's 1982 cult Sci-Fi horror classic (which itself was a remake of 1951's The Thing From Another World), it actually serves as a prequel to Carpenter's film. There are some fun references for fans to pick out, especially at the very end. (Don't get out of your seat at the last fade out, and when the end credits start to roll.) Mostly, the movie works in that it pays respect to the '82 film, without feeling the need to endlessly mimic it, like this weekend's Footloose remake. Yeah, it's certainly not perfect. The characters could have been fleshed out more. But, what can you do, it's a monster movie. Most of these people exist to be killed in horrible ways by the Thing. They serve their purpose. At the very least, the movie meets expectations.

The Thing of the title is an alien that is discovered encased in a block of ice by a Norwegian science team doing a study in the Arctic. They find the crashed vessel it arrived on Earth in first, then later uncover the frozen body. The arrogant scientist heading the team, Dr. Sandor Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen) wants to drill into the block of ice, and take a tissue sample from the creature. Forensic paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) thinks this is a bad idea, so naturally, Halvorson goes right ahead with his plan. The combination of drilling into the ice preserving the creature, and the eventual thawing of the ice itself, frees the creature. It's here that we finally get a good look at the Thing in all its slimy glory. It has rows and rows of teeth, scuttles around dark corners, and has the ability to assume the form of anything it kills. Much like the earlier film, paranoia sets in with the team members each suspecting each other of being the Thing in disguise.

Director Matthijs van Heijningen sticks closely to the narrative created in Carpenter's movie, and gives us the story of just what happened in that Norwegian science station that the main characters in the '82 film found. What he doesn't do is make us care about the characters the same way Carpenter did. Kate at least makes for a decent heroine, but everybody else is pretty forgettable. What the movie does have is some good atmosphere (the isolated arctic setting still works), a strong effects budget, and an overall mounting sense of dread that a lot of recent horror movies just can't quite achieve. Sure, it's pretty easy to figure out who will survive (Being able to speak English, and not in subtitles, seems to be a key to living longer in this movie.), but it still manages to create some tension when the characters are either turning against each other under suspicion, or trying to track down the monster in dark corridors.

The Thing plays most of its cards right. We do get plenty of good looks at the monster, but I never found it to cheapen the effect too much. It plays to the fans, but does not alienate newcomers. It has lots of jump moments, but they are spread out enough, so they don't feel forced. I wouldn't exactly call this a smart movie, but it at least knows what it's doing. That's smart enough for a movie like this. The actors know what they're doing, too. Winstead is calm and strong, while everybody else (made up of character actors and unknowns) fill their roles until it's time for them to become one with the monster who's killing them all. I found myself intrigued, grossed-out, and sometimes even interested in what was going on. Call it lowered expectations, but all of these feelings were surprising to me, and enough for me to recommend the film.

Did we need a prequel to The Thing? Probably not. But, if we must have one, this one's a pretty good effort. I wasn't sold on the characters, but I was sold on the Thing itself, and the fact that Heijiningen could create some decent tension to go with the killing, and the creature leaping out of the shadows. Sometimes that's all I'm looking for in a movie. I liked this more than I thought I would.

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