31 Days of Halloween - Day 15 - Movie 2

As I mentioned in the previous post, the current movie The Thing (2011) is a prequel to The Thing (1982) directed by John Carpenter (itself a re-make of The Thing From Another World (1951), and all based on the story "Who Goes There?"by John W. Campbell, Jr.). It's just as well that both movies are called The Thing, since they really are one continuous movie with the prequel blending seamlessly into it's predecessor. The only thing they'd have to change is moving the flying saucer shot from the opening to the 1982 movie to the beginning of the 2011 movie and you could run them together with no trouble.

I don't know how many times I watched the 1982 movie when it was released in theaters, but it was a lot. That year, The Thing and Bladerunner ate up a significant part of my income, as did E.T.. The story of the crew of an American research base in the Antarctic who find themselves host to a shape shifting alien that can exactly replicate any creature it has come into contact with and absorbed, was not only a tense drama of paranoia and isolation, but also a showcase for the mindblowing special effects created by then 21-year old Rob Bottin, who did things with rubber, celulose and bubble gum that really put the awe in awesome as his monster stretched, split and grew appendages in an infinite combination of outrageous creativity.

The cast is great in this, as is the music by Ennio Morricone. Forget Halloween, this is John Carpenter's masterpiece. If you haven't seen this yet, then stop reading this and go watch it now.