The Thing
(Universal Pictures, 1982)
Tonight's movie is the third from John Carpenter to make Halloween Movie Madness. It also stars Kurt Russell and Wilford "Quaker Oats" Brimley. That's right, it's The Thing. And not the newer prequel. Forget that junk. I only like John Carpenter's remake. On a side note, I was going to say Wilford "Liberty Medical" Brimley, but I like oatmeal more than I do diabetes.
Anyway, tonight's movie is about a research outpost in Antarctica where there just happens to be an alien who survives by living inside other creatures, like a parasite. The best part? You don't even know you are the host. By the time you do? Well, you would never realize it I guess.
I'm not really going to go into much detail about anything with the story because that's the whole idea here, no one knows who gets infected until it is too late. Therefore, if you haven't seen this movie, you won't find out here.
This movie is probably best remembered by two scenes: the crawling head, and the blood testing scene. The crawling head scene was cool, but holy hell the blood testing scene scared the crap out of me the first time I saw it.
Actually, a lot of things in this movie scared the crap out of me when I first saw it. Of course, that was when I was 10. A lot of movies used to scare me back then. Like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm St., and Critters. All of these movies are a blast to watch nowadays, but to a child who had never seen stuff like that before? Nightmares for a long time. In fact, after I saw Critters for the first time, I refused to go into any barns for almost a whole year.
The bottom line here is if you like horror and sci-fi, this is one of the best. Great special effects, good suspense (like I said, that blood testing scene.... wow!), and some great surprises along the way. Watch it. NOW!
