The Thing (1982) vs. The Thing (2011)

            After watching the 2011 prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing, I was hit with a sad sense of disappointment in what initially appeared to be a very promising film. The original is one of my favorite horror films, and it seemed like prequel to The Thing would have the same reverence for the isolated, frigid, and overwhelming paranoia that defined it. How can two films share the same unsettling monster, take place in the same remote landscape, and reference one another, but be so dissimilar? It seems like the prequel forgot what makes the original unique from the barrage of forgettable, formulaic horror flicks that have come and gone: real scares come from people, not monsters. Although The Thing’s monster is horrific, it’s definitely not horrifying. The real horror is that the crew of an utterly remote research station in an unforgiving artic environment have no chance of survival unless they work together, even though any one of them could be a hostile alien imitation. The prequel tosses aside this paranoia in favor of upping the ghoulishness of the monster, as if that was what made audiences squirm with suspense throughout the 1982 film.

            Although the monster is essential to both films, the frequency and circumstance of its appearances differ greatly. This speaks to the conceptual difference between the prequel and the original, and illustrates pretty clearly why one works and one doesn’t.  In the John Carpenter version, the alien’s appearances aren’t even remotely subtle: they’re marked by tentacles busting through flesh, body parts turning into teeth-lined mouths, and blood spraying everywhere. However, the key to understanding why the audience doesn’t get bored with this lies in when we get to see these gory spectacles unfold. Aside from just a few instances, the alien only appears in the 1988 film when it’s threatened. It assimilates and kills the dogs that bark at it, it devours the doctor who is about to shock it, and it bursts out of Palmer’s body when it is exposed. This survival instinct gives the creature an added element of intelligence and depth, which makes it more unsettling. More importantly, it puts the emphasis on the team of researchers to discover who is an imposter, rather than having them simply run around and try to survive a malicious monster as it tries to eat them. The latter is, unfortunately, what the 2011 version of the film is guilty of. The monster attacks simply because its a monster – mutating from human to alien at random, impaling unlucky scientists as it chases the protagonist down a hallway, and inexplicably destroying a helicopter that could have brought it in contact with more humans. As Steve Newton writes, the film “didn't even bother trying to conjure any of [the original’s] slow-burning suspense or claustrophobic vibe.” [1] With only “boo” scares and no dramatic depth, the movie quickly becomes mundane and forgettable.

Monster reveals are tricky, because they risk removing the element of scariness from the monster. The 1982 version narrowly avoids this with its reveals (although it comes close at the end, when a large alien creature bursts out of the ice wiggling its tentacles aimlessly) by giving them motivation, and especially by using context to shift more of the monster’s dramatic weight to the scenes without any monster at all. The 2011 version puts its focus on how grotesque the aliens transformations can be, and seems to forget about the whether or not the characters can outwit it.

 In Will Leitch’s review of the prequel, he writes “There's just no sense of dread in this "Thing," no notion that these people are truly at the edge of the world, with nowhere to escape and no one to trust.” [2] The environment is cold, but it doesn’t feel nearly as desolate or dangerous as it does in John Carpenter’s version, where the wind moans relentlessly and the walls of the camp seem perpetually on the brink of collapse. More importantly, although our characters are pitted against an evil creature, they are not pitted against each other.

-       Daniel Washington

Linked Articles:

1) http://earofnewt.com/2013/12/17/horror-review-the-thing/

2) https://www.yahoo.com/movies/bp/review-thing-155757947.html