One thing that scared me as a kid was the Todd McFarlane toys. They were so wonderfully crafted and horrifyingly detailed that I could feel the pain and anguish that a figure had. It was traumatizing, though that's a skilled artist, that's a person that knows their abilities and how to emote through a media. Though that brings me to the subject of the day "John Carpenter's The Thing" and the toy of the monster in all it's hanging flesh detail, hung on a shelf at the local SunCoast video.
Just a second on the evolution of horror, there's many different ways of subjecting one to something that's frightful, though there's not many that know how to connect our more basic fears into media, since most that enjoy these types of sensations are jaded at this point. Jaded in the sense that they love that emotion and want to feel scared or excited, that it's not really a new emotion and someone running after them with a large knife isn't something where they'll panic, well panic as much, it's still a person with a large knife. No, what I want to talk about is that this series is in a way a good representation of horror as a historical timeline. The story is in a book, no comic, no film, no splash page of gore, it was a novella in a magazine, nothing more than the pseudonym of John W. Campbell Jr. at the top by the title. The plot was about fear in man, pretty much an abstract thought into our own fears of one another. There's a hidden murderer among us and we'll never know, mind you the first World War ended twenty year before this was published, but I'm guessing Mr. Campbell saw the writing on the wall, since the following year the second World War historically agreed to start (there's been a lot of grey area talk on when the War started, so it's up for interpretation, but historically it's dated at 1939). This was perfect for those that believed there wasn't many to trust within their own community, though this paranoia lead to horrible crimes and left out of historical commentary. Then the film came out, about thirteen years after the publication of the story, this time around there was a visualization of the alien and it's monstrous form. It wasn't just something that could blend in well with the crew, but it was a being, it held space and this was a great fear. Someone with enough power to run through a wall, be frozen in ice, and could take down a man no problem. That was something that a lot of people feared, since it wasn't an idea, it was a man! This was within the years of horror movie monsters that then became slasher films, life's fears were a being and not a thought. Then the next film came about, it's thirty-one years, this is the one that most think of when talking about this subject. When this came out John Carpenter was flying high with the "Halloween" series and "Escape from New York" he then made another amazing film, though at the time wasn't seen as a good film, or a movie that was his. Later this would be the bases for a long line of monster movies with practical effects, trying to make puppets creepy and threatening. Though this film did something original, it took the fear of the unknown and gave you a form, but both are an abstraction in reality. In a nut shell this was the best of the Thing franchise and in horror history, since it brought back to the medium the concept of ideas could be just as horrifying, not just a big guy with a knife.
One thing I'd like to bring up is that this is all opinionated, from my point of view, but also the point of views of those that created these features and the inflections that they envision of the characters. So I've never read the story, though I'd very much like to get my hands on it, but at this time it's escaped my clutches, so I have the movies and audio books till then. Long and short these are the opinions of mine based on the story and plot brought to my attention by the ones that created media from the source material. If this sounds interesting, hearing a story and what happens based on another's third hand understanding. Let's get into the middle of this mess and see what comes from all of these things.
Audio Book
-Who Goes There? (1938)
I found this audio book when I was animating a film in my second year, it was something that gave me a lot of joy and something to keep my mind on while finishing tasks that didn't need all my attention, just enough that allowed me to focus and not want to throw a monitor out a window. Sadly, my audio wasn't the best, but the actor and the writing was stupendous. It focused on telling the story and keeping one within an eerie demeanor, it was nice, since one could really feel the different characters better, the loneliness that each one of them had within the snowy wasteland. It wasn’t totally professional, it was good, it was fun, but it was what it was… free. Still it was a reading from the original short story, a story that knows how to be perfectly creepy. If you can find the recording I listened to then you are in for a treat for sure, though with it being a few miles on the road to a decade I can’t quite remember nor say it’s still where I last saw it. Though it’s worth the listen if you can creep into my past and find this lost audio.
Movie
-The Thing from Another World (1951)
Honestly the goofiest of the Thing interpretations. At times this felt like a Frankenstein parody, still a good story, but it doesn’t hold that isolation feeling, that testing of mankind, that sense of paranoia, because we know it’s a monster in humanoid form. I think that’s what really tears down the film the most is it’s establish shot of the monster, that it’s a tall man, not that being from another planet who takes forms of other beings. The actors were good, the leads were wonderful, the story, well that’s the part that leaves it flat. This is something you see a lot in contemporary films, mostly reboots or flicks that are trying to grab hold of nostalgia glasses and jam the property down your throat. It’s kinda rare to see an older film take something from a property that’s it’s own thing, that’s built a crowd behind it and change so much and leave so little from where it’s origin came from. Again I’m not saying this is a bad film, I’m saying it was a bad ‘The Thing’ film, in all it was a strong movie that had interesting and likable characters, it’s development, and story structure was there, it was a bit slow, but pacing fit the film, since they needed to expand for time and give it more of a drawn out feeling. That this all didn’t take minutes, though hours to figure-out who the thing was, well where the alien was within the base. In a way this was a deluded version of the ‘Red Scare’ pitting neighbor on neighbor, who is it, who is the one that’s putting us all at risk. So as a horror movie it saw the headlines and went with it, but in the long run of things miss the mark between social commentary and keeping true to the source material.
Other Movie
-John Carpenter's The Thing (1982)
This is the one that’s the most famous, this is the one that had me the most scared as a kid, this is the one that was the most interesting and gross to watch. As a kid I’ve seen the action figures that this was based around, they were graphically accurate, they had everything in plan view, and to boot this was an ‘R’ film. At the time you could do a lot in ‘R’ films, not like today, but they really pushed the censors. I’m always one that likes the implied thought better than the thought, it’s kinda like the Rorschach test, you see what you want to see, so similar in this sense. You have an idea of what comes next, though you don’t see it, just the actions after, just what you’re told, no matter how graphic, as long as it’s not seen then you can have the spoken action within a movie, but once you have metal entering flesh, then cut from anything less than PG-13 and back in the day it was PG or R, nothing in-between, so why not go all the way. I saw the movie recently, well within the last four years, it was good. I mean that, it was a solid movie, the pacing had a stopping point, but it lulls you into a point of boredom (safety) that’s well made, not for the acting, but for the characters. They are doing the same things, in and out all day, studying this and that, taking about how they have a pilot, but never need to fly. Then stuff starts to happen and happen fast, things blow up, figuratively, though later literally. The Alien takes on many different forms, many different limbs spring from the creature, though like the book and other media it hides away in different places (and people), trying to build it’s ship or something we can’t understand, and building suspicion between the crew. In short, Kurt Russell is the only one still alive, though we don’t know whatever happened to the alien. The ambiguous ending was nice, but they never followed up with it. Over all the amazing practical effects, the wonderful acting, and the awesome experience that comes with this film makes it a must watch, even just for the mystery part of the film.
Well that’s my take on The Thing series, it was and will be something that stays in my mind and scares me just a bit before bed. In general this is where a lot of my paranoia comes from during and after college. Trust is hard, sometimes you need a blood sample and some fire. Though really, given the chance to see all of these again, it’s worth the trip, it’s a wonderful story and each creative team’s interpretation of the short is stupendous. It’s kinda like a mystery novel or film where the story keeps going around and around where you keep finding what someone else has noticed something different, something new that hasn’t been seen in all the other stories. I always revert back to Detective mode when it comes to multiple creative teams making something that I enjoy. Anyhow, checkout your local library for the short story, the multiple films, and head over to Linkcara for the comics. If you’ve read my reviews you can trust me this far…
