Top Movies #15

The Thing (1982)

“I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!” - Gary

John Carpenter’s The Thing, which is a remake of The Thing From Another World (1951), was the first movie to ever scare the shit out of me. No other film has ever come close to making me feel such primal terror.

The opening scene brilliantly sets the mood and atmosphere of the film, while introducing the audience to the first mystery. A helicopter flies over a barren frozen landscape. The only sounds are the roar of the helicopter blades and the “dum-dum” disyllabic bass of Ennio Morricone’s minimalist score, reminiscent of the Jaws theme. Soon we see that the helicopter is chasing a dog across the Antarctic plain. To our dismay, one of the passengers pulls out a rifle and fires at the terrified animal. The dog is making its way to the Antarctic Research Station that will become the central set piece of the movie. The helicopter passengers engage one final act of desperation, throwing dynamite at the dog, but end up destroying themselves in an accident. The research team takes this mysterious dog in and we are left wondering what could possibly have motivated the strangers on the helicopter to pursue the animal with such reckless fatal intention.

What makes The Thing work so well is its insistence upon total authenticity. Carpenter and company filmed the movie in northern British Columbia, which doubles as Antarctica. Set construction began in the relatively snow-less summer to ensure that the Antarctic camp would appear well-established by the time filming began during the following winter. Isolation is the most pivotal factor used to heighten the tension. These men are clearly alone, clearly cut off from the rest of the world. A storm is moving in (of course) that promises to sever radio communications and inhibit the inhabitants’ ability to fly out on the helicopter. This compounds the fact that the research team only has themselves to rely on for help. And not all of them can be trusted. An alien life-form, frozen for millennia in the ice, has infiltrated the compound and is digesting the inhabitants one by one when it catches them alone. Once this creature has absorbed its victim, it rebuilds him so that it can more easily access future victims while disguised as one of their colleagues.

Not knowing who to trust, not knowing who may be human or who may be a monster, is one of the most suspenseful gimmicks at a horror film’s disposal. John Carpenter exploits this scenario masterfully. In the film's bravado suspense scene, all the men must test each other’s blood to ascertain who is human. A scientist theorizes that if the blood is not human, it will react violently to molestation. Some of the men have been restrained to a couch because they have become destructive in their cabin fever. Or maybe they are hiding the alien. One by one MacReady takes a heated strip of metal and touches it to a sample of blood from each of the men. We don’t really know what reaction to expect or even if there will be one at all. This is one of the most suspenseful, most shocking scenes in horror cinema, and is certainly a large part of the reason why this movie makes my list.

The film comes to an ambiguous conclusion about the nature of human trust. MacReady, who has just blown up the monster, stumbles out of the wreckage, and finds one of the men who has been missing for the last leg of the film. He could be human. He musters a satisfactory explanation for his absence. But given what we have learned throughout the movie, the chances are pretty good that this character isn’t human. MacReady, while obviously not entirely trusting, seems ambivalent to this prospect and sits with the man to share a drink. Neither of them trusts each other and neither of them possess the energy to do much about it. This is an interesting question. Would you rather be alone, or take a chance that the only other man alive may not be human?