October Challenge Day 5:
John Carpenter's The Thing is like scripture in my family. We quote it regularly, perhaps too regularly.
Just last week my niece was put into quarantine after her college roommate tested positive for COVID-19. One of my brother's in our group chat responded with Blair's "I don't want to stay out here anymore. I want to come back inside" (as just one of thousands of examples). We all laughed and laughed and are very concerned of course.
I'm stressing this because when another brother and I decided to watch this prequel we were both intrigued and guardedly optimistic about what was in store. And now I have a few things to say about:
Okay, so it started off pretty interesting. It really did. We were both fully tuned in and excitedly awaiting the creature's appearance. But as time went on and we spent more and more time with graduate student Kate Lloyd, irritations began to arise. I'm really terribly sorry actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, but we legit didn't understand your character's history or actual purpose in this film. So much so that it became distracting.
And then - the creature emerged from the melted ice. The ultimate test!
Which failed our expectations thoroughly.
Considering how many easter eggs and tributes were on display for John Carpenter's version, throughout the film, you'd think more effort to not CGI this monster would have taken a priority. I'm sad to say ... I'm just sad.
I have all the sads.
Let's get back to the positive for a second though and stress what a great idea this movie was. For those unaware, the 1982 version starts off with a husky running out of nowhere to an American scientific lab on Antarctica. We learn later this dog arrived from a Norwegian scientific lab not too far away. Brilliance follows. In this film we start with the Norwegian lab and learn about what happened ... what lead to that dog running away. I LOVE IT! Super great idea.
While this film had some promising moments, overall - for these passionately devoted fans of The Thing - it just wasn't good enough. Could have been done better.
That said, I understand this was a difficult one to pull off for fanatic fans of John Carpenter's version. Although, expectations were not met (particularly in our family), if you're not a fanatic fan and/or never seen the 1982 version then I actually recommend this film. I recommend even watching the films in chronological order. Start with this one and prepare for life changing experiences.
I know I'm giving this film a little bit of a hard time but I'm also going to embrace my Simpson's comic book guy side for a moment regarding my love for the original remake of the original.
Check it out, you may like it. Fair warning for certain fans though. It isn't garbage, it just isn't all I was hoping for.
Pairs with watching 1951's The Thing from Another World and a load of cozy blankets. Best watched when ready.
I watched this film on HBO, or use the Find It! Watch It! links on Horror Habit's sidebar to see where else you can find this (personally) meh feature.
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