October of Horror #17: The Thing (1982)
Posted by Trixter on October 21, 2018
(For an explanation of what these posts in October are, see the parent post.)
Synopsis
Researchers at an isolated arctic outpost slowly come to discover that not everyone in their group is who they say they are.
Opinion
Confession time: I’d seen The Thing before — I love it, I own it on Blu-ray. So, this particular entry in my October of Horror experiment is technically cheating, as I wrote earlier I would only watch films I’d never seen. But, Melissa hadn’t seen it in decades, and Sam loves it, so we decided to watch it together tonight.
Like Halloween, The Thing is a nearly perfect slow burn. In 90 minutes you’re treated to confusion, accusations, adrenaline, trying to solve a mystery against time, science-fiction, shock, disgust, dread, and horror.
You may be shocked to learn it didn’t do well at the box office. Well, E.T. had been released the week before, and Poltergeist the week after… might have had something to do with it (sarcasm).
Recommendation
Required viewing. And then watch it again with the commentary with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell, as it’s both informative and, at times, hilarious. And then watch it a third time, because you form new theories about who was an impostor and at what times every time you watch it. Who was the first to get assimilated? When was Blair taken over? Was Blair an alien the whole time? The IMDB Q&A section for The Thing is one of the longest on the entire site.
Oldskooler Ramblings 
A Premature End to October of Horror « Oldskooler Ramblings said
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