The Thing 1982:
Perfection is not a word handed out often when it comes to cinema. It is handed out even less when it comes to the horror genre because there are several more factors in a horror movie that can go wrong outside of a regular film. For example you could have a cliche something is overly bloody not bloody enough. All these can take that five star film you want down to a four and three quarter film. It is rare to get that perfect combination of all elements in a film to come together.
However in 1982 only four years after the success of Halloween director John Carpenter would take us from the quiet small town horror to the cold tundra of Antarctica with his greatest film to date The Thing.
Set in a remote outpost of Antarctica a group of American researchers are going about their business when a group of Swedish men in a helicopter fly into their camp shooting at a lone dog running away from them. The Swedish men cause an explosion causing the Americans to be left scratching their heads as to why they would go to such lengths to kill a dog. The twelve men lead by R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russel) hunker down in their outpost and attempt to make contact with the outside world. They eventually head to the Swedish camp and find that what they discovered was a huge ship that had crash landed in the ice and may contain a creature from another world. It starts to become clear that something is amiss in the camp and maybe someone isn't who they say they are.
This film is based around the short story "Who Goes There" and plays on one simple fear the entire time. That simple fear is paranoia. The idea that the limited amount of people you have spent your time around may not be who you think they are is truly a frightening concept. To feel that these people you have gotten to know now are completely not the person you thought you were and you don't know who you can trust will send you into shivers everytime.
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