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Once in a while a classic horror like John Carpenter Thing is making the rounds on streaming, reminding us how he was ahead of his time by taking such a simple story line to the next level with creature effects. Now that Thing is streaming in all its violent and nihilistic glory on Shudder, you can see for yourself how tense and disgusting it is.
From the remote Antarctic wilderness to the looming and ever-increasing sense of paranoia that drips from every single sequence, you’d be hard-pressed to find a sci-fi horror movie that makes you want to test the blood of everyone in your house before bed just to be sure. Or, if you’re anything like me, your next viewing Thing he Shudder may or may not keep you reading Amazon flame thrower reviews.
Why it works
Although Thing precedes Predator five years on, both films have one thing in common that makes them stand above their contemporaries, and that’s the sense of routine and camaraderie of a seasoned crew disrupted by outside influences. foreign forces. Kurt Russell’s RJ “Mac” MacReady has a relationship with the rest of the research team that effortlessly lets the audience know how these people generally trust and get along under any other circumstances before the events that unfold Thingnow streaming on Shudder.
When the American team’s Antarctic research station is ambushed by a Norwegian helicopter (they’re not Swedish, Mac!), Mac and Dr. Copper (Richard Dysart) decides to fly over to the attacker’s station to see what exactly triggered them. Their original premise is that the Norwegians had a case of isolation-induced cabin fever and, for reasons unknown, wanted to shoot one of the many sled dogs living on the American base. It doesn’t take long for Mac and Dr. Copper finds a badly burned corpse that looks like a human in a suspended state of mutation after being burned by the Norse crew.
Mac and Dr. Looking for a logical explanation, the Coppers bring the corpse back to their base of operations, along with whatever research the Norse had compiled before things went south. Senior biologist Blair (A. Wilford Brimley) confirms that the corpse is human despite its deformities, but changes his mind when one of the station’s dogs violently mutates while locked in a kennel. The crew now know that they are dealing with some sort of “thing” that takes on the form of its host to assimilate and eliminate any living thing that can host its DNA, and they shudder at the consequences.
While there’s some initial doubt that they’re dealing with an alien life form, it’s hard for anyone to ignore the buried alien spaceship the Norwegians uncover before they go on the rampage.
An exercise in futility
Thing presents a moral dilemma that must be resolved immediately. Growing in paranoia, Blair makes the executive decision that the Thing contamination and assimilation efforts must remain isolated after predicting that whatever life form they are dealing with could take over the entire planet within a few years if unleashed after all over the world. . He destroys the radios and sled and kills the remaining dogs to make sure no one can escape.
Armed with flamethrowers and enough explosives to blow the research station sky high, the crew is almost certain they won’t survive the winter. When Bennings (Peter Maloney) and Norris (Charles Hallahan) become infected, the surviving crew’s paranoia gets the best of them, as they have no real way of knowing who else is infected with the Thing. Although Mac and Childs (Keith David) have more than enough reason to distrust each other at this point, they really have no choice but to put their heads together in their quest for survival.
Next level creature effects
Emotional and existential turmoil aside, Thing shocked everyone when it was released in 1982 because it was ahead of its time with its creature design and their stop-motion movements that still linger when you stream it on Shudder. Special effects designer Rob Bottin requested a budget of $1.5 million (one-tenth That’s it the entire production budget) and used a mixture of chemicals, food, rubber and mechanical parts to bring the eponymous Thing to life in its various grotesque permutations. If you somehow see it John Carpenter classic for the first time in 2025, you might not believe you’re watching a 43-year-old movie because the practical effects are so well done.
A certified cult classic
Thing he’s one of those creature features that really benefits from showing off his on-screen monstrosity, and there’s no shortage of blood, ectoplasm, gore, and bones to drive that point home. As each mutation grows more intense, so does the meaning real the fear of the main cast, made all the more convincing by the frigid temperatures on set, which in all likelihood kept adrenaline levels high during production and gave the film an air of authenticity that I haven’t seen replicated so beautifully since.
You can stream Thing right now on Shudderand I strongly encourage you to do so the next time you want to see the world burn. And if you want to explore Thing further, GenreVision podcast does excellent breakdowns that you don’t want to miss.
