I'm a huge fan of both the original 1950 The Thing and the 1982 John Carpenter remake. In fact the 1950 version has one of my all time favorite exchanges. Lt. Ken McPherson: What if he can read our minds? Eddie: He'll be real mad when he gets to me. This prequel though leaves me a little cold. The Thing 2011 And. Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!
The prequel is stupid. They should have done a follow on. American forces get to the camp and find Childs frozen stiff. MacReady is never found. Childs was human. The force finds the remains of the thing. A tiny part of it is not dead and now it's loose inside a secure base.
Ok maybe it's not stupid. Just watched the trailer. Doesn't seem like there is any high tech equipment and of course in the movie we don't know how many people were at the base. Hope they destroy that big helicopter though. Would be awesome if the last scene in the movie is them taking off after the dog and then the movie cuts to the 1980's Thing where the helicopter crashes and the guy gets shot by Gary and the movie ends there with the Dog Thing being at the American base.
There is a certain lack of suspense if it is a true prequel; we know that everyone on the Norwegian team is dead by the beginning of Carpenter's film.
By coincidence I just listened to an audio telling of The Things, a short story written from the point of view of the alien. It's really good, not just some fanfic wank. Takes a couple of interesting aspects and expands on them, plus the last line is freaking gold.
Well to be honest we think everyone is dead. They never did a through search in the camp and they didn't know how many people were in the camp or who was missing. And since the American base was out of contact with civilization because of the storm who knows what is happening to the rest of the world.
Well, what is the last line, dammit?!? *edit* Fine. Make me look it up myself. [spoilers] These poor savage things will never embrace salvation. I will have to rape it into them. [/spoilers]
It wasn't bad, but it was generally a waste of time and wasn't worth making, IMO. It has basically the same plot and story, only this time it focuses on a female character.
I did see it and liked it well enough. It IS essentially more of the same kind of action from the original, but there was enough new for it to be fresh. I liked the alternative the writers of this one found to the "blood test" of the original. What is remarkable is that it captures the "look and feel" of Carpenter's The Thing perfectly. And I was glad to see that there was some suspense despite us knowing what the fate of most of the characters had to be. And, yes, Mary Elizabeth Winstead...
John Carpenter Teases ‘The Thing 2’ and Talks About His Latest Directing Work at Texas Frightmare Weekend
Yep. For every The Thing, there's a Village of the Damned; for every Halloween, there's a Ghost of Mars. The other night, I watched a Carpenter film I hadn't seen: 2010's The Ward, with Amber Heard. Very mid. Not terrible or anything--in fact, a few good scares--but mostly forgettable. It takes place in a mental institution, so it's got a Shutter Island or The Ninth Configuration angle to it. (Has anyone but me seen The Ninth Configuration?)
