The Thing is a 1982 horror film about a research team in Antarctica who is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Some say the world will end by fire. Others say it will end by ice. Now, somewhere in the Antarctic, the question is being settled forever [from teaser trailer].
In an undisclosed location in the Antarctic you can escape all the burdens of society as you and a handful of researchers can enjoy the picturesque vistas and all the snow you can eat which would be heaven if it wasn’t for the fact that one of your workers is also a shape shifting alien….have fun guessing which one.
It’s often quite amazing when you think of all the uses the human body has in the realm of cinema, from being a source of food (The Road), water (Tank Girl) or as in the case of The Thing the best place to escape the Arctic cold as ominously advertised by the poster’s warning that “Man is the warmest place to hide.”
John Carpenter’s The Thing is a unique sci-horror film in that it’s location unquestionably adds as much to the film as the still impressive practical monster effects from Rob Bottin. This became such a labor of love for him, he worked on the film for a year and five weeks without a break, sleeping in sets or locker rooms, which would lead to the then 21 year old Bottin being hospitalized at the close of production with exhaustion, double pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer. Years later, his sacrifice can certainly be seen as worth it as The Thing still remains the stuff of nightmares. So much so that my copy of the film had, prior to revisiting it for this piece, remained in its shrink wrap as I knew exactly what was on that DVD.
Based on John W. Campbell’s novella, which had already been adapted once with Howard Hawks‘ and Christian Nyby’s enjoyable and in places groundbreaking (see the gasoline throwing sequence) The Thing From Another World (1954), Carpenter was already a noted fan, having paid homage to that film by including footage in Halloween. He personally felt it would be difficult to surpass. However, upon revisiting the source novella and noting the similarities to the Agatha Christie mystery And Then There Were None, he believed that he could make it “true to [his] day” as Hawks had in his time. The end result being an enemy within tale set amongst this group of blue collar workers with cold war paranoia playing out against the backdrop of a b-movie remake.
Set in the wide open expanses of the Antarctic, Carpenter rarely gives the audience a break from the location. By only giving them a glimpse of the outside world, Carpenter only allows the audience to see and experience what the researchers at the station get to and in doing so creates an incredible sense of isolation with the illusion being created through the use of an exterior set constructed in Alaska and climate controlled sets on the Universal Studios lot. For the Norwegian base which, would be the focus of the prequel and where the titular alien originates from disguised as a sled dog at the start of the film, Carpenter simply used the same sets once he’d shot the destruction shots of the Outpost when MacReady and the surviving team members make the questionably ballsy choice of burning to the ground their only form of shelter to flush the imposter out.
The base itself though is clearly a structure built out of functionality rather than luxury with many of the buildings having the same pop up feel of those you’d find in a building site. The researchers largely favoured structures made of metal boxes and sheet metal than anything close to resembling a brick structure while internally cardboard boxes clutter hallways and pipework runs overhead with no attempt to hide anything. This is not to say that the site is without luxuries as we can see from the bar setup in the common room with its wall of centrefolds, the kind of minor smut appreciation that has seemingly faded out around the mid-90’s. The beauty of the location though has long faded with the team as they have seemingly settled into a state of being comfortably numb as they attempt to pass the time playing ping-pong and re-watching the same video tape recordings of game shows they brought with them. Meanwhile, helicopter pilot MacReady (Kurt Russell) deals with the claustrophobic conditions by holding up in his own shed passing the time drinking scotch and playing computer chess. Of course the sight of the dog running into camp is treated like the most exciting thing to happen to them no doubt because of it being something new. Needless to say such excitement for their new furry companion will soon fade when its true nature is revealed.
With no real connection to the outside world besides a CB radio link, the isolation is much like Stanley Kubrick‘s The Shining. Both center on how cut off they are. Tension is of course only piled on further as the researchers are left having to improvise more and more as each of their few luxuries for battling the creature are slowly stripped away. The radio and blood reserves are smashed and the question of if they can just hold out a little longer becomes heavier knowing that the cavalry aren’t going to be coming ’round the corner at the key moment to save them.
Added to the rising tension is Carpenter’s skillful use of light as a large portion of the film takes place at night with the outpost exterior illuminated only with spotlights. When combined with blizzard like conditions, it’s only harder to see out into the inky darkness. This limited use of light however only serves to make the flamethrower effects and scenes illuminated by flames or flares, all the more impressive visually to see and certainly helps emphasis the detachment from normal society. But then one of the strongest elements of the film is that rather than following the traditional route of having characters making rash and downright dumb decisions, here we have a film where you have a collection of smart characters trying to authentically solve the issue facing them, despite the limited resources at their disposal.
With mounting pressure, especially from the audience’s perspective, Carpenter never really takes the time to introduce the characters working at the base. Unlike the blue collar workers of Alien, whose box office success had been key to the studio picking up this project after a failed attempt to develop it with Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). This means when the group starts questioning who amongst them is whom. It’s clever because we as the viewer have no advantage over the team, more so when so many of these characters are interchangeable, with each other a source of much criticism along with the films nihilistic tone. When it was released, audiences perhaps were after something more similar to E.T. So when Carpenter doesn’t just kill off a dog but rather explodes it in a mass of swirling tentacles and gooey effects, there was naturally some pushback. However, despite the fact that not everyone is given an introduction these characters still feel like more than disposable monster chow.
Critically panned and failing at the box office, in the years since its release The Thing has been rightfully reassessed and re-discovered by audiences who are discovering the film and viewing it as a horror classic as well as one of the best films in Carpenter’s filmography. And no matter the ambiguous characters and looming monster, the real power unquestionably comes from its location as all the paranoia and tension is played off the men’s surroundings, perfectly setting the table for Bottin’s smorgasbord to grotesque delights.