Why John Carpenter’s “The Thing” Is My Favorite Horror Movie Of All Time!

Written By: Vejay Singh

Released in the year 1982, John Carpenter’s first big studio movie was released by Universal Studios literally two weeks after another film about an alien life form from Universal called “E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial & opening the same day as Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner”. Initially hated by critics, “The Thing” mainly due to the film being very dark & grim compared to E.T. which was very family oriented. John Carpenter’s cult classic “The Thing” is a much more truthful adaptation of John W. Campbell “Who Goes There” compared to 1953’s “The Thing From Another World” directed by Howard Hawks. While “The Thing From Another World” was a decent movie despite it being a simplified monster movie due to the budget & advances in makeup/visual effects at the time. John Carpenter had included clips from “The Thing From Another World” in his 1978 independent hit “Halloween” when Lori Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) babysits Lindsay & Tommy because he had loved that movie since he was a child & it was something that would ironically be revisioned by John himself when filming began in August in 1981 with a modest $15 million dollar production budget the film was a box office failure only grossing about $19 million dollars worldwide. Despite the critical & financial failure of the motion picture by the time the mid 90’s hit the film had achieved cult status which led to some of those critics giving the film critical praise. “The Thing” starred Kurt Russell (Big Trouble In Little China), Keith David (Armageddon) & Wilford Brimley (The Firm) with Dean Cundey (Halloween) as the Director of Photography which helped the film with hauntingly beautiful cinematography & was edited expertly by Todd C. Ramsay (Escape From New York). The 1982 film provides a sense of paranoia like no film has for the last 36 years making you guess who has been infected by “The Thing” which also provides spine tingling chills everytime you revisit one of the greatest horror pictures of all time, right up there with “The Exorcist” (1973) “The Omen” (1976) & 1922’s “Nosferatu”. The score was produced by legendary spaghetti western composer Ennio Morricone who is best known for his works on “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly” & “The Hateful Eight” which perfectly mimicked the John Carpenter synth style on the piano which enhances a vast majority of his films & creates this atmosphere like no other just like in 1983’s “Christine” which was directed by Carpenter himself. One of the best scenes other than that amazing ambiguous ending is the “blood test” scene where Macready tests everyone’s blood with fire to see if their blood reacts similar to how the “thing reacts”. The scene can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6shktwDwzM now what I love about that scene is how usually the 3rd try would lead to a cheap jumpscare however the scene keeps going & going causing panic amongst the viewer.

The Thing holds up tremendously well to the point where it’s near-perfect making it not only my favorite horror movie of all time but one of my favorite movies ever!

Overall Rating: 5/5