Comments | narfnitsirk: The Thing. Squee.

narfnitsirk

The Thing. Squee.

Oct 26, 2010 12:40

What makes The Thing one of the most awesomest movies ever? I will side step the obvious (and correct) answer of "EVERYTHING!"

The setting: Stephen King has made a career of trapping his characters and watching what happens. Whether he traps them in a car with a rabid St. Bernard outside, traps them in a snowed in hotel, or in his most recent, just ( Read more... )

Comments 18

ext_246168 October 27 2010, 15:35:29 UTC

Yes, well...Kurt Russell's hair, it can now be stated, was the inspiration for my own golden tresses. That's right, ladies, be jealous. Ahem...

Good points all. I'd also like to point out that, if the remake has even one digitally-rendered monster and contains no practical creatures, I'm going to take a hostage. The Thing is, bar none, one of the greatest pure horror movies in existence.

Women anonymous October 27 2010, 16:45:13 UTC

I agree with your point about Kurt Russell's hair. Dreamy..... But I could not rationalize the voice of the Liberty diabeetiss man with the face on the screen. Wilford Brimley??

Anyway, I watched/listened to the director's commentary (also with Mr. Russell) and I believe they mentioned that there was originally a woman cast in the movie and she had to back out of filming. I think it's just as well. The movie worked.

Re: Women anonymous October 27 2010, 16:45:38 UTC

Sorry, that was Nikki.

Re: Women narfnitsirk October 27 2010, 16:49:30 UTC

So Alien was originally written for all men, and the parts of Ripley and Lambert just happened to go to women. I can't wrap my brain around a universe with out Ripley (and, quite frankly, don't want to) so that makes me wonder what a lady would have brought to The Thing. There is a lady in the prequel, I hope they don't muck it up with sexy bits.

Even more cool Thingy-ness anonymous October 29 2010, 16:09:38 UTC

THE THING is such a great movie. Glad you loved it, too. I'm with Dave -- no need to go all lit crit with THE THING -- but I enjoyed your responses to the quotations. Trying to break down the enjoyability of THE THING in terms of cultural context is like trying to explain why I love Iron Maiden's "The Trooper" in terms of Cold War saber-rattling.

I'm excited to learn they're making "At the Mountains of Madness". I hadn't heard. Very cool.

Speaking of very cool, if you still haven't had enough thingy-ness, the source story, "Who Goes There?" by John Campbell, is here: http://www.scaryforkids.com/who-goes-there-by-john-w-campbell/

Re: Even more cool Thingy-ness anonymous October 30 2010, 01:22:27 UTC

Damn. Failure again. That was me.

John D.

ext_287029 October 29 2010, 16:27:08 UTC

Why would any critic go to a horror movie looking for love, wonder, and delight? Unless you're baked, that is....

Good point about the faceless threat of AIDS. Dave has a great point there, too, that the faceless threat is timeless, which makes this movie timeless.

Seventies and Eighties Hair? Not timeless. Not timeless at all. I live tweeted my viewing of this movie, and I think my first tweet was "OMG feathered hair WTF" or some such. But now, thanks to yoicksandaway, I'm singing "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" in my head.

anonymous October 30 2010, 03:21:14 UTC

Perhaps I'm in the minority on this one, but for me the monster just didn't work. Yes, it had shock value vis-a-vie the special effects, which were great. But beyond that well... I just didn't get a good feel for it.

CRaig