Movie Viewers who are secretly infected by an alien virus,
Another week, another movie, another good movie! We watched ‘The Thing’ from 1982. We watched mostly for Kurt Russell’s amazing hat, but the special effects also held up really nicely. There can be shitty physical effects from the 80’s that don’t hold up, these are awesome.
Recap.
It’s hard for me to write a recap for a movie that I’ve already seen so many times. Simply its a bunch of guys who are trapped in Antarctica with an alien force/virus that takes over their bodies. They have to decide who to trust. Faces melt, heads walk with spider legs. the end.
Thoughts
- If the alien just DIDN’T freak out and go all crazy gross, how would they even know? Since they never really explain anything about it, maybe it just HAS TO, like it hates being normal.
- Wilford Brimley without a mustache is weird
- If they would have just planned the ‘testing’ better, this movie would have been over sooner. But it was awesome to see those guys on the couch freak out.
- There doesn’t seem to be any rules to the alien, just WHATEVER IS THE MOST WEIRD THING RIGHT NOW
- Every scene with the monsters is SUPER GROSS
- Kurt Russell is always awesome.
- I really need to watch the new one.
- I really DON’T need to watch the old old one.
Facts
- Considered a critical and box office flop when it came out
- The iconic poster for the film was created by Drew Struzan overnight and without him seeing any stills from the film.
- Those repetitive bass notes? composed by ENNIO MORRICONE
- NOT A REMAKE – used same source material
- The scenes at the Norwegian camp were actually filmed at the end of production. The reason for this is that they simply used the same set as the American outpost but after it had been destroyed by fire.
- Both Nick Nolte and Jeff Bridges turned down the role of MacReady.
- this list http://mentalfloss.com/article/68365/13-fascinating-facts-about-thing
This week is my pick, I’ll check the list.
Let me know who’s coming, that will influence my pick.
-Mark
The Thing is a 1982 American science fiction horror film directed by John Carpenter and written by Bill Lancaster. Based on the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. novella Who Goes There?, it tells the story of a group of American researchers in Antarctica who encounter the eponymous "Thing", a parasitic extraterrestrial life-form that assimilates, then imitates other organisms. The group is overcome by paranoia and conflict as they learn that they can no longer trust each other and that any one of them could be the Thing. The film stars Kurt Russell as the team's helicopter pilot, R.J. MacReady, and features A. Wilford Brimley, T. K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, and Thomas G. Waites in supporting roles.
Production began in the mid-1970s as a faithful adaptation of the novella, following 1951's The Thing from Another World. The Thing went through several directors and writers, each with different ideas on how to approach the story. Filming lasted roughly 12 weeks, beginning in August 1981, and took place on refrigerated sets in Los Angeles as well as in Juneau, Alaska, and Stewart, British Columbia. Of the film's $15 million budget, $1.5 million was spent on Rob Bottin's creature effects, a mixture of chemicals, food products, rubber, and mechanical parts turned by his large team into an alien capable of taking on any form.
The Thing was released in 1982 to very negative reviews. It was described as "instant junk", "a wretched excess", and proposed as the most-hated film of all time by film magazine Cinefantastique.[1] Reviews both praised the special effects achievements and criticized their visual repulsiveness, while others found the characterization poorly realised. The film earned $19.6 million during its theatrical run. Many reasons have been cited for its failure to impress audiences: competition from films such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which offered an optimistic take on alien visitation; a summer that had been filled with successful science fiction and fantasy films; and an audience living through a recession, diametrically opposed to The Thing's nihilistic tone.
The film found an audience when released on home video and television. In the subsequent years it has been reappraised as one of the best science fiction and horror films ever made, and has gained a cult following. Filmmakers have noted its influence on their work, and it has been referred to in other media such as television and video games. The Thing has spawned a variety of merchandise—including a 1982 novelization, haunted house attractions, board games—and sequels in comic books, a video game of the same name, and a 2011 prequel film of the same name. A remake was announced in 2020.
Source : Wikipedia
