The Thing
starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Eric Christian Olsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Trond Espen Seim
written by Eric Heisserer
directed by Matthijs van Heijningen
Rating: ♦♦♦♦◊
Based on the story `Who goes there?` by John W. Campbell, Jr., this 2011 film is a prequel to the 1982 film of the same name starring Kurt Russell, directed by John Carpenter. It finishes off right where the 1982 film begins. The John Carpenter version is still excellent and did not really need a re-make. At least, not yet, I think.
Norwegian scientists in the Antarctic have discovered an alien spacecraft buried in the ice. They recover an extra-terrestrial corpse long frozen in the ice. They take a tissue sample for study. But the tissue is not dead. Being thawed revives it, and when the alien cells enter a host they multiply like a virus and eventually kill the host while perfectly replicating its body. So there are aliens running around disguised as humans. It`s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, directed by Don Siegel, starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter) all over again! We don`t know who is human and who is alien. We don`t know who we can trust. Put this situation in an isolated Antarctic research station, further cut off by a fierce storm, with darkness everywhere because of the slow destruction of the facility and the creepy Antarctic night and you have the perfect recipe for a horror movie. If you want to survive in a horror movie you can never be alone. Never leave your group and say `I`ll be right back` and then go off in the dark because you won`t be back. You`ll be dead.
The creature can`t be allowed to escape and reach human civilization. That would be the end of us.
The 2011 version has many more creature effects than the 1982 version. I like that, being able to see what the creature looks like, although not being able to see it clearly also adds to the fear. The 1982 version was an all-male cast. A couple of women scientists are thrown into the mix in this prequel. That`s okay. I get a warm feeling from a sexy chick with a flame thrower.