Movie Review: The Thing (1982)

Remakes are a tricky business. If you adhere too closely to the original film, you lose a lot of the juice that ran through it (plus, people will point and call you a copycat). If you wander too far from the original, though, you risk alienating the very audience you're trying to attract.

So when John Carpenter, director of such horror classics as Halloween and The Fog, decided to tackle a remake of Howard Hawk's production, The Thing from Another World, there was a curious combo platter of elation and trepedation amongst horror fans: Would Carpenter hold close to the original short story by Joseph Campbell Jr.? To the original film? To neither?

Try a little of all of the above.

The story begins in the Arctic, with Norwegians in a helicopter hunting a German Shepherd with a rifle, shooting at the dog until it runs into a camp of scientific observers for protection.

What the observers don't know--what the Norwegians discovered, much to their horror--is that the dog is not just a dog: It's a creature from outer space capable of mimicking any lifeform it comes in contact with. Thus begins a fight for survival between the alien and the staff of the camp--and, ultimately, with said staff fighting with one another, trying to figure out who has been taken over by the alien and who, if anyone, is still human.

Carpenter's camera prowls the cold, desolate halls of the Arctic base, watching the remaining survivors become increasingly desperate until, by the end, there are only two--neither of whom is sure whether or not the other is an alien or not.

It definitely helps that Carpenter has populated this desolate station with numerous recognizable character actors, including Kurt Russell, Richard Dysart, Richart Masur, Wilford Brimley, Keith David and Donald Moffat. And the synthesizer score, surprisingly, isn't by Carpenter himself, but by master Italian movie composer Ennio Morricone.

Another terrific film for a cold winter's night.