Introduction and First Review- The Thing

Hello all! My name Sean Kenny, otherwise known at the Movie Maniac, and I love movies. Ever since I first started watching films, I was drawn into the different worlds or states of mind that they take me to. As often as I can, I will be reviewing a film that I own to show exactly how many movies I have as well as how much I respect movies. I will now begin with a film that I have purchased recently, and that is John Carpenter's The Thing. WARNING! This review may include spoilers, so if you have not seen this film, you might want to watch it before reading this. I will give a brief summary of the film, but the majority will be mostly my opinion. Here I go. Let the mania begin!

The Thing is one of those films that I call "gloriously gory" simply because it has some of the greatest special effects to a horror film I have ever seen! Sure, it might be dated, but it still continues to scare me to this very day, and I will tell you why.
This film was released in 1982, and starred some of Hollywood's greats such as Kurt Russell and Keith David. It is actually a remake of the 1951 classic, The Thing from Another World. The film takes place in the Antarctic (now that right there spells terror!). A group of American scientists slowly but surely find themselves faced with a great threat, a shape-shifting alien that starts out in a sled dog, and works its way into each and every person. The whole film basically portrays the meaning of the word paranoia!
Okay, now it is time for me talk about why I respect this film. As gory as this film is, there is a great wonder to it, and almost beauty. Now, that might seem twisted, but hear me out. The beauty of it lies in the achievement of realism in this film. You see, as much as I love CGI, it can really be done wrong if you get the right person to screw it up. I have seen so many horror films where there is a CGI monster, but it is obviously fake. No effort is done to make it look the slightest bit real. That is not the case for The Thing because the special makeup effects look very real, and as fake as the idea of aliens may be to some people, the alien looked terrifying!. Call me crazy, but this film has a beauty to it because of that.

The characters are also very well written because as tough as some characters may seem, each and every one of them show fear. For example, there is scene where everyone thinks that MacReady (Russell) was taken over by the thing. All of the scientists were dangerously close to killing him, and when MacReady threatens to blow the building up, I could see the terror in his eyes. It is such a great character study to see what lengths people will go to survive, even if it means taking a risk in killing the wrong person.

The setting is brilliant in my opinion! Who is going to save you when you are on a continent where the majority of the world thinks it is pretty much dead? To me, it is like a more down to earth version of Ridley Scott's Alien. No one can hear you scream in the Arctic either. I mean think about it, both aliens inhabit humans somehow. The only difference is the thing shape shifts.

I could probably talk about this film for hours on end, but in short, John Carpenter is a genius. I really cannot think of anything negative. The ending might be a letdown to some people, but just keep in mind, they are all in the Antarctic, there is limited amount of things that can be done for rescue! It just shows the hopelessness that this alien brought to them. I give this film a 10/10 otherwise! Thank you for your time! Look for more reviews on my favorite films! Movie Maniac signing off!