Dr. K's Waiting Room

---

January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.

---

Quick Facts:
Despite being a critical and commercial failure at the time, John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) became a sci-fi/horror classic but spawned only comic books and videogames rather than a sequel. Universal Pictures eventually revisited the iconic Who Goes There? (Campbell, 1928) with a prequel to both expand upon and pay homage to John Carpenter’s classic. Despite the filmmakers utilising traditional practical effects by Amalgamated Dynamics, the studio demanded they be replaced with digital effects, dramatically changing the ending and leading to much unfair critical backlash and the cancellation of a follow-up.

The Review:
Nonsensical title aside (The Thing: Zero or The Thing: Origin might’ve worked better), The Thing is a rare example of a clever way to do a remake, even if the execution isn’t as memorable as John Carpenter’s film. The Thing is set in 1982, just like Carpenter’s movie, and follows the crew of Norwegian research station “Thule” in Antarctica, making it a direct prelude to John Carpenter’s movie. We saw glimpses of the Norwegian’s discovery and their gruesome fate in 1982 film, but The Thing expands upon what happened at Thule and even incorporates some elements from The Thing from Another World (Nyby, 1951). The film opens with the Norwegians randomly discovering a vast and ancient alien spacecraft buried deep under the ice, estimated to have been there for over 100,000 years. Though Thule houses a few scientific minds, Doctor Sander Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen) and his assistant, Adam Finch (Eric Christian Olsen), assemble a team to investigate the crash and its ejected pilot. Adam suggests recruiting beautiful palaeontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and, despite the lack of details, she eagerly agrees and is as amazed as the others are by the discovery. Although they question why the pilot would’ve ejected, geologist Edvard Wolner (Trond Espen Seim) enthusiastically organises his men to help Kate excavate the creature, which they bring to Thule in a massive block of ice. Against Kate’s warnings, Dr. Halvorson orders a tissue sample to be taken from the entombed creature, chastising her for contradicting him and arrogantly wishing to be at the forefront of the find of the century. To be fair, Dr. Halvorson does promise to credit everyone with the discovery, which he verifies is the first recorded example of an extraterrestrial visitor to Earth. Despite her unease, Kate celebrates the reveal alongside the others, including pilots Sam Carter (Joel Edgerton) and Derek Jameson (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).

While inspecting the thawing ice block, Jameson is horrified when the titular “Thing” bursts free and, after a moment’s disbelief, convinces the others to search for it. When Henrik (Jo Adrian Haavind) and Olav (Jan Gunnar Røise) find the vaguely insectile creature under a building, Henrik is ensnared and seemingly devoured, splattering Olav with blood and leading the others to burn the Thing alive. The shell shocked team barely hold it together as Dr. Halvorson conducts an autopsy and finds a disturbing copy of Henrick within the mangled corpse. Against Dr. Halvorson’s wishes, Kate reviews the Thing’s tissue and is horrified to discover that the alien cells are attacking, absorbing, and replicating living tissue. Her warnings fall on deaf ears, however, as even Adam is in denial despite witnessing it for himself, meaning Kate’s powerless to stop Derek, Griggs (Paul Braunstein), and Sam from taking Olav to a medical facility (and, as Sam promises, getting military aid). However, after discovering bloody dental fillings in the bathroom, Kate rushes to flag down the helicopter, sure that someone onboard is the Thing. Turns out it was Griggs, who violently splits apart and crashes the chopper, though the others are still sceptical about Kate’s warnings, especially as the evidence has been cleaned up. Juliette (Kim Bubbs) offers to help Kate get the keys to Thule’s vehicles to keep Edvard and the others from leaving and potentially spreading the Thing’s reach, only for her to also be revealed as a Thing and kill Karl (Carsten Bjørnlund) before being immolated by the surly Lars (Jørgen Langhelle) and his flamethrower. Echoing a similar scene from the 1982 film, the survivors dig a ditch in the snow and burn all the bodies, agreeing to quarantine themselves until they can figure out who’s who using a blood test devised by Dr. Halvorson and Adam, just like in Carpenter’s film. Similarly, this test is sabotaged when the laboratory goes up in flames, which also raises tensions in the group.

I like that The Thing largely commits to having the Norwegian characters speak in Norwegian and that it closely emulates the aesthetic of John Carpenter’s film, with Marco Beltrami’s foreboding score reminiscent of Ennio Morricone’s work in 1982. The film quality is noticeably better but the set design seems to perfectly match with what we saw in 1982, and The Thing goes to great lengths to explain how Thule ended up in the state it’s found in the previous film. Although the survivors briefly turn on and suspect each other, with Adam, Sam, and Jameson prime suspects since the former was the last person in the lab before it burned up and the latter two inexplicably survived the helicopter crash. Although the test is ruined, Kate checks everyone for fillings, leaving Adam, Colin (Jonathan Lloyd Walker), Edvard, and Dr. Halvorson suspects as they claim to have porcelain fillings. This scene isn’t as tense as the 1982 blood test but it’s a great way to show that the Thing cannot replicate inorganic material, meaning fillings and other metal implants are rejected during the absorption process. While fetching the isolated Sam and Jameson to check them, the Thing attacks and, in a bout of paranoia, Peder (Stig Henrik Hoff) is shot dead and Edvard is injured by an explosion. He’s dramatically revealed to be the Thing and goes on a rampage, infecting Jonas (Kristofer Hivju) and Dr. Halvorson killing Jameson, and gruesomely crawling over Adam to partially merge with him and create the abhorrent two-headed Thing discovered in John Carpenter’s film. After finally destroying this creature, Kate and Sam spot Dr. Halvorson fleeing in a snowcat. While Sam’s happy to let him drive off and freeze to death, Kate realises the Thing would benefit from that and that it’s heading back to the space craft, so she encourages them to pursue, relieved to find that Sam still has his ear piercing and is thus human.

While there are moments of tension and suspense in The Thing, this is far more akin to a monster movie than John Carptener’s film, focusing more on large, ungainly alien abominations and giving us a bigger body count. The Thing is still an unknowable, shapeless creature that’s cunning, patient, and extremely volatile, happy to imitate a victim and bide its time. While hidden as Griggs, the Thing almost escapes and, much like in the 1982 film, many characters are infected offscreen to keep the audience guessing. The Thing is noticeably more insectile at times and far more bloodthirsty, skewering and impaling prey with its razor-sharp tentacles and devouring them afterwards rather than immediately trying to absorb them. It still detaches parts of itself, notably its hands, to attack and is particularly vulnerable to fire, especially when in the middle of imitating someone. It cannot replicate inorganic material, though, raising some questions about how it has time to get dressed after imitating someone. It still imitates people flawlessly despite this, even attacking other parts of itself to maintain the ruse and being smart enough to lure others to a quiet area to attack, though Thule is well stocked with flamethrowers and grenades. Unfortunately, as many have said, The Thing ditches traditional practical effects for CGI visuals, and the results are noticeably mixed. When I first saw it, I didn’t think it was all that bad and thought it did a decent job of capturing the same vibe as Carpenter’s film but being just different enough in fun and clever ways to be enjoyable. I still think this, and this extends to the visuals, which are still disturbingly gruesome even if the CGI can be quite dodgy and cartoony. It does mean The Thing is a little less gory at times, especially when the alien is revealing itself or attacking someone, which is a bizarre choice considering how ghastly the effects are when it splits apart and erupts into a mess of tentacles, teeth, and moaning humanoid faces.

Kate and Sam follow the Halvorson-Thing back to the spaceship, which it activates in a bid to either return to the stars or infect larger civilised areas. The commotion separates Kate and Sam, leaving Kate to wander the highly advanced alien craft and stumble upon a glowing, geometric hologram that leaves her mesmerised for some time. This was initially a biomechanical alien pilot, not unlike the “Space Jockey”, that was originally planned to have been collecting alien samples before being attacked by the Thing. Other versions of the film had an animatronic version of this pilot (or a horrendous amalgamation of Dr. Halvorson, the pilot, and the Thing) attacking Kate for the finale. Instead, Kate stares at this weird lightshow before the disappointingly cartoonish, CGI Halvorson-Thing attacks, forcing her to find space to toss a grenade into its gaping, teeth-riddled maw. Luckily, Sam appears just in time to unload with a flamethrower, destroying the grotesque creature and shutting down the ship’s engines. Though exhausted and battered, Kate still has the wherewithal to notice that Sam is now missing his earring and burns him alive without hesitation, reducing him to a squealing mess of alien meat as the Thing is finally destroyed. While Kate heads towards a nearby Soviet base in the snowcat, pilot Matias (Ole Martin Aune Nilsen) returns to Thule from a refuelling mission and finds it in ruins, Colin having slit his wrists out of fear of being assimilated, and is confronted by a paranoid, trigger-happy Lars. After verifying that Matias is human, Largs desperately urges Matias into the chopper to pursue his fleeing snow dog, which was discovered brutally killed soon after the Thing first awoke, perfectly tying the end of this film into the beginning of John Carpenter’s The Thing…

Final Thoughts:
I’ve always been a big fan of John Carpenter’s The Thing, even if it can drag a bit in the middle. It’s a fantastic example of horror, paranoia, and gruesome practical effects that would be difficult for any film to emulate. Rather than try to remake John Carpenter’s cult classic, The Thing opts to act as a companion piece, a prequel to show what happened at Thule before the 1982 film. In that respect, I maintain that The Thing does a decent job. The attention to detail in the set design and the fates of Thule’s residents is admirable, revealing that these twisted, mangled corpses were once people driven to desperation and paranoia or overtaken by a violent alien organism. I really liked the abundance of subtitles and Norwegian being spoken and it made sense to bring in some Americans as Thule wasn’t equipped to properly excavate or study the Thing. I adore Mary Elizabeth Winstead and won’t hear anything against here. Kate was a forthright and level-headed character who kept her cool, even when being attacked by the Thing, and came up with practical solutions. Joel Edgerton is no Kurt Russell, though, and most of the other characters are interchangeable and forgettable compared to those in Carpenter’s film, but I liked the smarmy, arrogant Dr. Halvorson, who seemed to be channelling the equally egotistical Doctor Arthur Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) from The Thing from Another World. While I don’t think the CGI is that bad, it’s true that it’s not as impactful as practical effects and appears very slap-dash, lacking the visceral horror of animatronics and puppets. The weird hologram-thing in the spaceship was a strange decision (it might’ve been better to just cut that scene) and the Halvorson-Thing wasn’t as grotesquely disturbing as the monstrous Blair-Thing, despite being more mobile thanks to CGI. I truly think The Thing is better than a lot of people think and is worthy of re-evaluation. It works really well as a double feature with John Carpenter’s The Thing and has some good moments, but even I must admit that it’s lacking compared to its predecessor and sadly missed the mark with its overall execution.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Do you agree that The Thing is better than most people think? Did you like that it aligned well as a prequel? Were you disappointed that much of the suspense was downplayed in favour of monster horror? Did you find the CGI disappointing and what did you think to that hologram thing? Would you like to see a new version of Who Goes There? on the big screen? How are you celebrating sci-fi this month? Whatever you thought to The Thing, comment down below and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest other sci-fi films for me to review.