Year of release: 1982
Run time: 1 hr. 49 mins. | Rated: R | Genre: Horror / Gore / Sci-fi | Language: English / Norwegian / German / Italian
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a thing, a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Another entry into John Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy, together with Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness, this sci-fi/horror classic is peak movie magic with the use of practical effects.
In remote Antarctica, a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. When they take in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings and canines in the camp and they discover that the beast can assume the shape of its victims. A resourceful helicopter pilot (Kurt Russell) and the camp doctor (Richard Dysart) lead the camp crew in a desperate, gory battle against the vicious creature before it picks them all off, one by one.
One of the best extraterrestrial horror films of all time for many reasons. They didn’t even have to show what the “alien” really looked like, it acted like a virus thing of some sort that can shape shift, not only into animals, but humans as well, so “distrust” is one of its strong points; and because of the this, not only do they have to deal with the creature, but amongst them as well. I’m not sure what the reason was, but the “alien” took different forms on different hosts, so the variety of monsters shown was enough to satisfy any monster-loving fan out there.
Iconic Practical Effects
In my opinion, the effects, monsters, sounds, all visual/sound effects related carried the whole film and made it as popular as it is today; it was groundbreaking and nothing compared to it at the time. The number of people involved made it hard to follow which and who was where at the time, it was confusing, at least for me it was.
Setting
The setting, an isolated Antarctica research station, much like “30 Days of Night”. It’s compact, the area is generally huge but no one would dare venture out there, so you’re going to be limited to just those facilities.
Conclusion
The ending was just an icing on a cake. One of the best uses of “I’ll leave it to your imagination” scenarios. Properly executed.
Fun fact: The Thing (2011) is a prequel to the 1982 version.
Charles Hallahan as Norris
Peter Maloney as Bennings
Richard Masur as Clark
Donald Moffat as Gary
Joel Polis as Fuchs
Directed by: John Carpenter
Writer: Bill Lancaster
Based on: Who Goes There?
by John W. Campbell
Produced by: David Foster & Lawrence Turman
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