# 163 The Thing (1982)

The Thing is a movie about American scientists working in Antarctica. They come across a parasitic alien organism capable of imitating its victims whether it's dogs or human beings. It's a story of paranoia and not being able to trust your teammates because you don't know which one of them may be infected. But in the end, none of it matters because they have nowhere to go to escape from this thing.

This is the first time I'm reviewing a horror movie (The Sixth Sense doesn't count as IMDb doesn't label it as "horror"), and I can say that it really impressed me because along with Alien and Aliens, the special effects don't look tacky, even though all of these sci-fi movies were made in the eighties. I watched the director's commentary where John Carpenter said that their goal was to shoot a black-and-white movie in color. They did an excellent job, and it really helped create the atmosphere and make all rubber alien things look natural. The scene where one of the characters had his arms bitten off is probably one of the scariest movie moments I've seen in my life. It's also amazing what they did with the reverse motion photography and how many special effects they created using this technology.

The pacing in this movie is good, you have enough time to understand what's happening, but at the same time there is something going on in every scene, you receive little pieces of information every minute, and you also get to see how different characters react to this situation. Psychology is very important in this movie because it really makes you feel like you can't trust anybody, and slowly you start to realize that there is no way out. This feeling intensifies and reaches its peak towards the end. The whole part with the blood test was awesome, it explains a lot about the nature of the thing, and it's also very thrilling, probably the best part of the film.

I liked the acting in this film. Only when I started writing this review I realized that Childs was played by young Keith David. In my opinion the best actor in this movie was the dog. This half wolf/half husky was an excellent animal actor, never looking at the camera, as if he understand what he's supposed to do, this dog performed perfectly. The Thing is a classic and definitely deserves a spot on the list.

Interesting fact: The Norwegian camp scenes were actually the charred remains of the American site from the end of the film. Rather than go to the expense of building and burning down another camp, John Carpenter re-used the destroyed American camp.

Favorite quote: "Maybe we're at war with Norway?"