Friday, June 17

The Thing (1982) - 1988 Universal/CIC Video South Korean VHS

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The Thing is arguably John Carpenter's best work. If not, it's at least the best expression of apocalyptic paranoia within isolated groups running rapid throughout his filmography. It literally has everything, except estrogen, and that's probably for the better. Even the perceived strongest and most intelligent alpha males are utterly defenseless against such a horrifyingly plausible beast. The "thing" might be the greatest enemy creation in all of Horror. Something that never has a true self and can almost immediately alter its host to meet the demands of quickly changing threats. Just like a natural virus and an unintended analogy of the AIDS epidemic first coming into widespread public consciousness by 1982. Fucking scary monster flick stuff, especially down in the frozen asshole of the world...

Rob Bottin's effects are brilliant and watching The Thing in this era of CG-reliance makes you wonder if the same wholly practical approach could even be done today. Could the same amount of effects budget and time (Bottin nearly killed myself from exhaustion) produce the same quality today? Conversely, how much money and time would it take for computer wizardry to "approximate" such realism that stills holds strong thirty years on?

2 comments:

Jayson Kennedy said...

Also, this tape is sourced from the old full screen MCA Videocassette Inc. tape with Korean subtitles.

Watched this a few days ago on MCA/Universal's widescreen LD...

Anonymous said...

Hope they should make several new 'the thing' sequels like 'THE THING 3' through 'THE THING 6.' And hopefully they will only just do the real practical creature special fx and a lot of make-up transformation special fx.

...do you dare tread upon the staircase?

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