John Carpenter's The Thing

I hate the cold. Snow and Ice are definitely not for me. After seeing John Carpenter's The Thing, I'm even more sure of this fact. This movie reinforces the fact that the Antarctic is the last place on earth I would ever want to visit.

The movie begins in the Antarctic with a bunch of unknown people chasing a dog and trying to kill him while they are yelling at the dog in a foreign language. They chase the dog right into the camp of R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Dr. Blair (Wilford Brimley) who are understandably a little confused as to what is happening. These unknown foreigners succeed at only killing themselves and the dog is left alive with MacReady and Blair wondering what happened.

Blair, Macready and company end up making the journey to the camp where these people were staying only to find it destroyed with no real evidence of what happened. They gather what little evidence is left at the camp and return to their home base in an attempt to decipher what has happened. Of course they bring the dog back with them -- a critical mistake.

Once they return home and realize that there is something not right with this dog, The Thing basically becomes a search and destroy mission for the alien creature that once was this dog. But it's not an easy task for the crew since the alien can assume the form of just about any living creature -- so no one can be trusted!

Part Science Fiction and part Horror, The Thing is one of my favorite John Carpenter movies. Although it did not do well at theaters and was originally panned by critics for it's use of "excessively" gory special effects, appreciation with the viewing public has grown for this film over the years. The performances are very good all around with Wilford Brimley standing out from the crowd as the gruff Dr. Blair. The cinematography is also perfect, setting just the right mood and painting the perfect picture of isolation and distress.

John Carpenter's The Thing is a great movie to watch on those cold, winter nights. Just be careful if your dog comes running into the room with a bunch of people chasing after him -- checking for signs of alien possession at this point would probably be a "good thing".

More John Carpenter's The Thing Movie Reviews

Movie Review of John Carpenter's The Thing from FeoAmante
John Carpenter's The Thing Movie Review and Information Page at The Internet Movie Database