The Thing Blu-ray Review
Tying in as neatly as possible to John Carpenter’s 1982 classic, this film shows us what happened to the Norwegian camp before Kurt Russell set foot on their burnt out camp.
The premise is therefore straightforward. The scientific team have discovered a giant flying saucer under the ice. A group of experts are drawn together to uncover what treasure they have found, but once the beast in the ice is unleashed it sets about assimilating the staff.
There are a handful of decent scenes that do work. The film is at its most tense when the group are strung out to the point of suspecting each other and one scene in particular works well when a character is checking the inside of everyone’s mouths for fillings.
The film also sports a great “all hell breaking lose” scene which sees a sticking end to various members of the crew.
The film goes to good lengths to explain certain details in the Carpenter film and these are fine. It doesn’t spend enough time on the characters and suspense though. And the finale isn’t anything to write home about. But the film is worthy enough to be considered a decent companion to the 1982 film.
The film’s major alteration that does not tie in with the original film is the fact that Norwegian’s do not blow out the ice to reveal the entire saucer, it’s kept underground (hardly a big thing to get too upset about). More upsetting is the same curiosity from the original film which is how the beast came to be frozen so close to the surface!
Marco Beltrami revisits the main theme from the original film at the bookends of this film only – but delivers a very generic score in the middle.
A noble effort then, but further proof that practical effects are still better and too much CGI can ruin the effect of any horror film.
Steven Hurst