The Thing (1982)
Opening this post, I just want to say the number of dog deaths in this film made me very uneasy. I cannot watch the deaths of animals without feeling violently ill. So, be warned.
The film opens with these seemingly crazy Norwegians shooting at a dog. Now, this made me mad, and when the guy got a bullet to the brain, I was satisfied. I couldn't figure out why those two were so hell-bent on killing an innocent animal. Stay tuned for the realization.
So when Mac and some crew go to investigate the Norwegian site, they find it abandon and run down. They also find a very wonderfully frozen dead body preserved in its manner of death. From blood icicles to his neck being cut open but frozen, so his head stays in the perfect place, the gore was set up to be fabulous in this film. Some of it was even absolutely disgusting. When I say that, I mean the thing coming out of dog form was heartbreaking and made me want to vomit. Then it was found trying to hurt and digest the other dogs, and let's just say, I am glad I didn't eat breakfast until after this part.
Back to the camp investigation, let's talk about stupidity. We all know how scientists are when it comes to new discoveries. This film proves no different. Do I need to revert back to Alien on this one or all we all on the same page? Of course, a great idea to take the mutilated, half-burnt, thing back to your station. Who wouldn't? If you answered the majority of people without scientific desires, you hit the nail on the head. Moving on, the autopsy of the creature was very pleasing, as much of the gore in the film was. I will comment that the intestines Blair removed looked like pork sausages and the liver looked like raw chicken you buy from a store, just all covered in fake blood. Yeah, it was '82, I will tread lightly. Carpenter including that still amped his disturbing level, and disgusted most viewers, I assume.
The thing that actually left me in disgust was the transforming dog. That was very difficult to get through. Then it started spitting purple shit at one dog and attempting to eat another with its weird intestine tongue. However, this scene put the beginning together for me a bit better, and now I understood why those men were shooting at the dog. Then we get hit with that the creature imitates other life forms. Its digestion and process are actually gross, nice one Carpenter. Wait toward the end when they are testing each other's blood, and you'll see what I mean when I say it is rather gross. Then crazy Blair kills all the dogs, ruins their camp resources, and my nerves are settled because I know no more dogs can logically be harmed for the remainder of the film.
On a sour note, I never figured out what kills the creature or how it spreads itself. Does heat kill it? If so, they how come every time it got lit up, it seemed like another one came back up? Also, did it clone the things it imitated or did it become a part of them? Visuals and transformation of humans were fabulous, but I found myself disappointed in the lack of explanation. If they are continually torching the thing after it busts out of someone or something, how is it coming back if the fire is how they get rid of it? I did enjoy when it knocked the power out so it could freeze itself again. That displayed rational understanding and logical problem solving that it had.
The mayhem about the blood bags was another very well done scene. I still am wondering if the creature drained them to help in its imitation process or to prevent them from having an easy way of seeking it out. Not going to lie, I stopped paying much attention here until Mac is in the closet with the flame thrower. Then it got delicious. There was nothing but chaos after that scene. From the doc losing his arms to the creature decapitating its host and sprouting legs from the head. Clearly, this thing, whatever it was, had some intelligence to it solely based off that scene where it uses its intestine tongue thing to move the severed head until it could safely modify itself away from the heat.
So let's get to the ending. To sum up, so far, some confusion on how it mutilates, survives, and spreads, but the visuals Carpenter gives us of transformations and digestion are fabulous. There is also a never-ending sense of urgency after they bring the creature back to camp that lasts for the duration of the film. Urgency is needed in everything, not just academic writing. Alien had zero urgency for most of the film, Carpenter nailed the sense here. The remaining crew discovers that Blair has been building some sort of aircraft off of their ruined machinery, might I remind you he destroyed their useful machines, to begin with.
There is temporary confusion as to whether Blair is the thing, or is just trying to help it. Then when the remaining crew realizes the creature knows it can't get away and wants to refreeze itself, they concoct a plan to blow the whole station up. Here is where the Blair confusion is cleared up as he absorbs Garry's face with his hand. Might I also mention, the elastic face band dragging scene was another one that was wonderfully done. Then when Mac figures it all out, the ending moves pretty swiftly. The whole station blows up, and Mac crawls to assumingly accept his fate of hypothermia. Then Childs, remember him, the guy that ran off into the night an hour or so ago, shows back up and they both seem to accept it. Whether one of them is now a part of the creature or if they are going to die from exposer, they seem to be at peace with it.
That's it. That is how it ends. It was a weird ending that I have no praises or ill ideas about. I think I would rather be left in the dark on this monsters survival than to officially know. I think it wanted to get home, and displayed its desperation to get away very well throughout the body-hopping to the scene where they find the half-built craft. I may hold a bit of hope that it did make its way home in one of the two survivors, or froze again waiting for another opportunity. As long as it stops killing animals, I think I can accept the mystery of whether it actually survived or not, considering fire barely stopped it multiple times before, why should the viewers have hope this time was any different?
The film opens with these seemingly crazy Norwegians shooting at a dog. Now, this made me mad, and when the guy got a bullet to the brain, I was satisfied. I couldn't figure out why those two were so hell-bent on killing an innocent animal. Stay tuned for the realization.
So when Mac and some crew go to investigate the Norwegian site, they find it abandon and run down. They also find a very wonderfully frozen dead body preserved in its manner of death. From blood icicles to his neck being cut open but frozen, so his head stays in the perfect place, the gore was set up to be fabulous in this film. Some of it was even absolutely disgusting. When I say that, I mean the thing coming out of dog form was heartbreaking and made me want to vomit. Then it was found trying to hurt and digest the other dogs, and let's just say, I am glad I didn't eat breakfast until after this part.
Back to the camp investigation, let's talk about stupidity. We all know how scientists are when it comes to new discoveries. This film proves no different. Do I need to revert back to Alien on this one or all we all on the same page? Of course, a great idea to take the mutilated, half-burnt, thing back to your station. Who wouldn't? If you answered the majority of people without scientific desires, you hit the nail on the head. Moving on, the autopsy of the creature was very pleasing, as much of the gore in the film was. I will comment that the intestines Blair removed looked like pork sausages and the liver looked like raw chicken you buy from a store, just all covered in fake blood. Yeah, it was '82, I will tread lightly. Carpenter including that still amped his disturbing level, and disgusted most viewers, I assume.
The thing that actually left me in disgust was the transforming dog. That was very difficult to get through. Then it started spitting purple shit at one dog and attempting to eat another with its weird intestine tongue. However, this scene put the beginning together for me a bit better, and now I understood why those men were shooting at the dog. Then we get hit with that the creature imitates other life forms. Its digestion and process are actually gross, nice one Carpenter. Wait toward the end when they are testing each other's blood, and you'll see what I mean when I say it is rather gross. Then crazy Blair kills all the dogs, ruins their camp resources, and my nerves are settled because I know no more dogs can logically be harmed for the remainder of the film.
On a sour note, I never figured out what kills the creature or how it spreads itself. Does heat kill it? If so, they how come every time it got lit up, it seemed like another one came back up? Also, did it clone the things it imitated or did it become a part of them? Visuals and transformation of humans were fabulous, but I found myself disappointed in the lack of explanation. If they are continually torching the thing after it busts out of someone or something, how is it coming back if the fire is how they get rid of it? I did enjoy when it knocked the power out so it could freeze itself again. That displayed rational understanding and logical problem solving that it had.
The mayhem about the blood bags was another very well done scene. I still am wondering if the creature drained them to help in its imitation process or to prevent them from having an easy way of seeking it out. Not going to lie, I stopped paying much attention here until Mac is in the closet with the flame thrower. Then it got delicious. There was nothing but chaos after that scene. From the doc losing his arms to the creature decapitating its host and sprouting legs from the head. Clearly, this thing, whatever it was, had some intelligence to it solely based off that scene where it uses its intestine tongue thing to move the severed head until it could safely modify itself away from the heat.
So let's get to the ending. To sum up, so far, some confusion on how it mutilates, survives, and spreads, but the visuals Carpenter gives us of transformations and digestion are fabulous. There is also a never-ending sense of urgency after they bring the creature back to camp that lasts for the duration of the film. Urgency is needed in everything, not just academic writing. Alien had zero urgency for most of the film, Carpenter nailed the sense here. The remaining crew discovers that Blair has been building some sort of aircraft off of their ruined machinery, might I remind you he destroyed their useful machines, to begin with.
There is temporary confusion as to whether Blair is the thing, or is just trying to help it. Then when the remaining crew realizes the creature knows it can't get away and wants to refreeze itself, they concoct a plan to blow the whole station up. Here is where the Blair confusion is cleared up as he absorbs Garry's face with his hand. Might I also mention, the elastic face band dragging scene was another one that was wonderfully done. Then when Mac figures it all out, the ending moves pretty swiftly. The whole station blows up, and Mac crawls to assumingly accept his fate of hypothermia. Then Childs, remember him, the guy that ran off into the night an hour or so ago, shows back up and they both seem to accept it. Whether one of them is now a part of the creature or if they are going to die from exposer, they seem to be at peace with it.
That's it. That is how it ends. It was a weird ending that I have no praises or ill ideas about. I think I would rather be left in the dark on this monsters survival than to officially know. I think it wanted to get home, and displayed its desperation to get away very well throughout the body-hopping to the scene where they find the half-built craft. I may hold a bit of hope that it did make its way home in one of the two survivors, or froze again waiting for another opportunity. As long as it stops killing animals, I think I can accept the mystery of whether it actually survived or not, considering fire barely stopped it multiple times before, why should the viewers have hope this time was any different?
I agree that the dog deaths were the worst part of this movie. However, I immediately knew the dog was infected, right from the shots scene. I caught onto the foreshadowing just by the camera shots and the focus on it so heavily. However, when it changed and started spitting on and digesting the others I was done. One whimper/bark from the dogs and I took out my headphones until it was over and hugged my own dog. However, I did like the gore in the movie, and I'm not normally a gore fan.
ReplyDeleteI think the creature was definitely intelligent. It stayed as a dog until the humans trusted it, moved away from the fire as a head, and took out the generator to freeze itself again.
Also, I read a theory online that Child's ended as a Thing because Mac was going to drink the bottle and then realized it was from the Molotov cocktails. So Child's drank straight gasoline. But that's just a theory. The writer and director in interviews even said they don't know the order of infection and who was real or not at the end. That's one of the great things about this movie.
Interesting. I still don't think I care to know if both were human or one was the creature. I would like to keep the small amount of hope I have that the little bugger got back home. :P
DeleteI kinda thought that the thing could exist as multiple entities. Like it could be two people and a dog at the same time. Maybe it could periodically link up with itself to share gained knowledge or something. Its the only way to explain how it kept coming back after getting torched time after time. You basically have to kill all instances of it that exist at any given time.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree the gore in this one was very well done. It had some ties to Alien with the way things would burst out of itself--a head in a chest--that kind of thing. Similar to the Alien were it opened its mouth and another mouth popped out. That's great stuff.
I feel the same. It was a bit confusing how if fire was the source to kill it, then how did it come back all those other times? It would only make sense if it had the ability to infect at least two creatures.
DeleteI know we've all said the dog deaths are the worst part, but I actually say they're the worst part for the reason that I don't see the connection all the way. The dog seemed like it was the handler's dog, not one of the Norwegian people's dogs, so I'm baffled as to why or how the dog was so welcomed and protected by the American camp. I love animals, but I love monsters ripping out of things too, so the dog splitting open was really neat for me. It also lets me know where Parasite Eve probably got their idea for how the dog splits into Cerberus when it gets infected in the old Playstation game.
ReplyDeleteI loved The Thing, but I definitely agree that it was hard to keep track of who was infected when. Even watching this movie again for my second time, I couldn't quite track how many people were infected at once. Because I'm that kind of person, I feel like it would be fun to watch again and take notes to try to reconstruct a timeline... Blair especially is a confusing one. It almost feels like his plot line is obscured for the sake of creating tension in the movie in a way that wouldn't actually make sense if you really pulled it apart. Like if he's been infected the whole time, why would he have freaked out like he did, essentially ensuring that he would be locked out in isolation? Unless that was part of the plan for building the ship in privacy? It really seems like an incredibly intelligent creature capable of playing multiple strategies at once, if that's the case. Makes Mac's chess loss to the computer at the beginning almost seem like foreshadowing...
ReplyDelete