John Carpenter – ‘The Thing’
Cosmic horror, in its most effective form, manages to capture the unfathomable terror of an extraterrestrial species whilst keeping a very human story at its heart. Such is indeed the case with John Carpenter’s remake of the 1951 film The Thing from Another World, itself based on the John W. Campbell Jr novella Who Goes There?, is a pioneering sci-fi tale that entwines the very real struggle of humanity’s fear of the ‘other’ with the inconceivable horror of the gloomy unknown.
Simplifying the title even further, Carpenter calls his 1982 film The Thing, the perfect name for this streamlined tale, mostly set within the confines of an isolated Antarctic research facility. Instantly throwing the harmony of the central team into disarray, the film begins with an Alaskan Malamute dashing across the snowy plains whilst being pursued by a helicopter and a shooter attempting to kill an innocent dog.
Approaching the research facility, the gunfire alerts the workers, who each run out to hear the commotion. Landing the helicopter, the crazed shooter runs out, spouting enraged Norwegian words that the American crew cannot interpret, with his wild gunfire leading to his death. Allowing the animal into their facility, the crew mistakenly allow a cosmic being into their ranks, with the alien beneath the canine skin being able to perfectly replicate the image of its prey.
Whilst predictable panic soon ensues, Carpenter spends a good deal of time settling down with the characters, introducing us to a variety of different men with varying temperaments and moods. Kurt Russell’s MacReady is Carpenter’s protagonist, an erratic, short-tempered and highly paranoid helicopter pilot who seems at odds with the group and Keith David’s Childs, a no-nonsense mechanic.
With a distinct lack of female presence, each man seems isolated from one another, despite their apparent friendship, becoming defenders of their own free will and identity once the alien wreaks havoc, infiltrating the team one victim at a time. Its theme is far-reaching and ever-pertinent, speaking to the Cold War tensions between America and the Soviet Union, as well as the USA’s contentious gun laws that were born into history through the paranoid etchings of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
The Cold War was fueled by fear of ‘mutually assured destruction’, and similar ruminations bubble away in the background of Carpenter’s film, with the hideous alien creature brutally killing animals and humans, seemingly with no aim at all other than to fight for survival. Similarly, the human characters act with a similar sense of erratic fear, prepared to ‘kill or be killed’, with MacReady often putting his crewmates in danger in service of destroying the alien foe who threatens their way of humanity.
But the titular creature doesn’t take jurisdiction over a crewmember’s body through polite conversation. Thanks to some groundbreaking monster design from special effects artist Rob Bottin, the villainous beast slides into orifices and latches onto skin with fleshy fingers of muscle that destroy flesh and turn bodies into playthings. Sequences in which the creature runs riot are rife with creativity and stunning cinematic mischievousness as ‘The Thing’ takes on countless stomach-churning forms.
Though Bottin isn’t the only one working at the very peak of his craft, with the great Ennio Morricone gifting the film with one of the greatest horror scores, underlining the tension of Carpenter’s sci-fi with careful staccato beats whilst the sound department manages to conjure an ethereal sound from deep space to give voice to the otherwise mute monster.
Each element of the film works in perfect harmony with the next, crafting a flow of suspense that culminates in an ominous climactic scene that radiates a perpetual paranoia even after the credits roll. Whilst The Thing strikes fear with its visceral terror that oozes disgust, it is the intolerable feelings of betrayal, mistrust and anxiety that Carpenter fosters that make his film such an enduring masterpiece.