The film opens perfectly with a helicopter chasing a lone Husky through the snow filled mountainside. It becomes clear that the men in this helicopter are trying to shoot and kill this defenseless creature. Eventually the dog finds its way to a American research facility and when the men in the helicopter land, start yelling in a different language, and open fire, the locals, not knowing what's going on, shoot them down.
From there our cute dog is taken in by Kurt Russell and the gang only to find out that he is only an alien imitation. When the crew realizes this, it may be too late and it becomes a story of survival and distrust as any of the crew could have been imitated.
This film won awards for its creature effects, and it shows. This is the kind of film that makes you miss the days before CGI, when things looked more organic, real and frightening. Thats why I love directors like Guillermo Del Toro who still mixes tangible effect with computer generated ones.
The cast are all great at conveying the reality of the situation, this feels like it could really happen to everyday people, and that this is what it would be like. This is brilliant psychological horror mixed with its fair share of shock and gore. This is a must see...Highly Recommended!!! Oh yeah and the blood test scene is probably one of the most classic scene's in horror movie history!
This movie sits somewwhere between #1 and #3 in my top five fav. horror movies list. Carpenter wishes he could make a movie this good now.
ReplyDeleteProps on the Escape from New York review too.
Are you going to check out "the Fog" next?
Ya 'The Thing' only gets better every time I watch it. I can't believe how far the mighty have fallen. Carpenter's most recent film output is horrible! I remember not liking the Fog as much as these two.
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