Why 'The Thing' Still Holds up

It's no secret that there's a contingent of horror movie fanatics who are tired of the overabundance of computer-generated imagery

clogging up the visual palette of so many modern would-be horror classics

There's a large group of people who pine for the days of practical effects being the status quo

Are they living in the past, or do they have a real point? Today on Scream to Screen, we're going to be evaluating why John Carpenter's The Thing still holds up after all these years

The long journey to the release of one of horror's greatest benchmarks was riddled with false starts and failure

Yet nearly 40 years later, we're still talking about the end result

The Thing, directed by John Carpenter and written by Bill Lancaster, is a re-adaptation of the classic 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. short story, Who Goes There

The short story had previously been adapted in the classic 1951 Howard Hawks film, The Thing from Another World

but that iteration took large liberties with the source material. Despite Carpenter's initial misgivings, the film was able to cement itself as something wholly unique

and though it wasn't a commercial success when it was first released, the film has risen from the depths to be heralded as one of the greatest horror films of all time

This begs the question, what differentiates this version of the story from its literary originator

and its filmic predecessor, let alone the 2011 remake prequel, the video game, and the failed TV series sequel

Why are we still discussing and marveling at this cerebral nightmare almost 40 years later

Let's explore. The plot of The Thing centers on an Arctic research station

The 12 men who are stationed there are forced to come to grips with their humanity

when they unknowingly accept a shape-shifting creature from an alien world into their midst

The creature then takes over the various members of the group, pitting them one against the other

It's a tense, lean, and atmospheric film that asks questions about who we really are

how far we're willing to go to get what we want, and what our subconscious is truly afraid of

The process of creating John Carpenter's The Thing started in the mid-70s

when producers David Foster and Lawrence Truman suggested a re-adaptation of the classic novella

Who Goes There?, to Universal Pictures. Foster and Truman wanted to develop a project that stuck more closely to the source material

They wanted to create a faithful adaptation, not something just loosely inspired by the original novella

The producers then gathered multiple successful screenwriters to attach to the project, and approached John Carpenter in 1976 to gauge his interest in directing the project

Despite his willingness to come aboard he lost the opportunity to Toby Hooper who was more of a proven commodity at the time thanks to the massive success of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre However Hooper and his longtime writing partner Kim Hinkle didn see the project through to completion due to creative differences with the producers

The project stalled out for a few years, languishing in so-called development hell

After the 1979 smash success of Ridley Scott's Alien, Universal renewed their interest in

the project and once again approached Carpenter, who had just produced the iconic slasher prototype Halloween

Carpenter became fascinated with the idea of the alien creatures being truly otherworldly

As such, he hired comic book illustrator Mike Ploog to do some initial character designs

These designs proved so terrifying that the studio redoubled its efforts to produce the film

The final screenplay for the film, written by acclaimed screenwriter Bill Lancaster

the son of iconic Hollywood actor Burt Lancaster, proved to be a surreal and nightmare-inducing fever dream

Prior to this, Lancaster was most widely known as the screenwriter for The Bad News Bears and its lesser-known sequel, The Bad News Bears Go to Japan

The script for The Thing had many divergent interpretations. One of them was to be more of a Moby Dick-style story, where the crew members at the outpost would literally be hunting giant monsters with harpoons

Another interpretation found the human protagonists battling a chameleon-like shape-shifting alien being

Some of these narrative threads worked their way into what was ultimately shown on the screen

Lancaster and Carpenter found a new, more terrifying way of approaching the alien, thanks to Mike Plug's concept art

After Carpenter and Lancaster were satisfied that their script had been massaged to the point that it was sufficiently divergent from the original film

but still faithful to the short story, they began the process of pre-production

The principal visual effects designer brought in to realize the alien creatures was Rob Bottin

Known for his work on films such as RoboCop, Total Recall, Seven, and Fight Club

he was at the top of the special effects industry at the time. Botin had worked in visual effects from a very young age

At the age of 14, he showed acclaimed makeup effects artist Rick Baker a portfolio of his drawings

and was hired to work on horror film productions on the spot. Believe it or not, he worked on the King Kong remake at the age of just 17

He was a prodigy and a virtuoso, pure and simple. Botin joined the project in mid-1981 after pre-production had already begun

Artist Dale Kuypers created some preliminary paintings of the creature's look, but he left the project after being hospitalized in a traffic accident

before he could develop them further with Botin. Carpenter conceived of the thing itself as a single creature with horrific elements but after working with Botin and Plough he realized that having the creature evolve over the course of the film would be even more horrifying Boteen Ploog and Carpenter incredible designs for the alien have caused the creature to reach beyond the boundaries of the

horror genre. People from all walks of life know of The Thing. It is one of the most horrifying

and frightening creature designs to ever grace the silver screen. In fact, the character's design

is so unique and otherworldly that it basically has guaranteed the film's longevity

June 25, 1982 marked the day The Thing escaped into cinemas. Unfortunately, it was not a major success

earning just $3.1 million over its opening weekend at the box office

Released in only 840 theaters nationwide, the movie generated a measly $3,699 per theater

It finished in the number 8 film slot for The Weeknd behind the supernatural horror film Poltergeist

which had generated $4.1 million and was in its fourth week of release

After only three weeks in theaters, the film dropped out of the top ten grossing movies

Ultimately, the film garnered a total of $19.6 million, against a budget of $15 million

It was the 42nd highest grossing film of 1982, and was thus perceived as a failure at the time

It also received widespread negative reviews upon release. The cynical nature of the story, and the anti-authoritarian themes in the film were not well received by reviewers

However, over the ensuing 30 years plus, the film has eclipsed its predecessor as one of the most acclaimed horror films of all time

The film's murky atmosphere, startling special effects, and razor-sharp performances are all cited when positioning the film as a classic

The claustrophobic nature of the story has allowed multiple generations of viewers to yze and debate the character's intentions

Its bleak ending is arguably the most daring creative choice, one that has allowed conversations about the film's quality and longevity to be almost annual affairs

The Thing is both an indictment of the status quo and an exaltation of the horror of the unknown

Ploog's designs and Boteen's special effects are arguably the pinnacle of the entire visual effects industry

The film has a crackling energy that stems from its prolific use of deep shadows and physical effects

John Carpenter's The Thing is rooted in the fear of the unknown, and this factors into how the film was produced as well

The fact that so many sequences with the alien are garbed in darkness causes the viewer to constantly be searching within each frame, looking for new and otherwise missed details

This directly relates to how the characters in the film interact with their situation

The execution of the plot and the plot itself meld perfectly The sheer terror of not being completely sure that the people around you are in fact themselves is a hallmark of the horror genre However Lancaster and Carpenter execution of that concept is completely original

Many films have tried, but have completely failed to match the greatness of John Carpenter's The Thing

The fact that the movie was also shot on 35mm film adds a sense of depth and warmth to the footage

which flies in contrast to its stark, bleak tone and its snow-covered aesthetic

The 35mm film also helps lend an air of credibility to the animatronics used to create the various monsters

It grounds everything in a sense of staunch reality. The movie The Thing features in Carpenter's Apocalypse trilogy of cosmic horror films

Although it's a loose trilogy related only in aesthetics and subject matter, Carpenter and many of his fans have grouped The Thing with 1987's Prince of Darkness and 1994's In the Mouth of Madness

All three of these films are deeply influenced by Carpenter's appreciation for the works of horror novelist H.P. Lovecraft

They also all feature otherworldly elements and unknowable horrors. In 2005, the Sci-Fi Channel planned to premiere a four-hour miniseries sequel that would have been produced by Frank Darabont and written by David Leslie Johnson McGoldrick

Ultimately, the project was never produced, and Universal opted to continue the idea of a sequel with a feature film

A prequel, also called The Thing, was released in October 2011 and generated 27.4 million worldwide with mixed reviews

The story of the film follows the Norwegian team of experts that are seen at the beginning of the original film

Universal Studios and Blumhouse Productions announced the development of another remake of The Thing in 2020

This version was described as incorporating elements from both The Thing, from Another World, and The Thing, as well as the expanded novella, now titled Frozen Hell

Despite being a failure at the box office, The Thing has now found its place as one of the most authentic and important horror films ever produced

From its startling visuals to its sleek and bleak screenplay, the film has garnered legions of fans that respect and adore its cynical tone

Despite constant attempts at revisiting or rehashing the film, this is one narrative that's nearly perfect in its execution

If The Thing was released today, it would be just as relevant as it was in 1982

The film's suspicious regard of authority, themes of distrust of your fellow man, and mind-blowing special effects would still make it a talking point among genre aficionados

There aren't many films that you can say that about. Most stories are so inextricably linked to the time in which they were made, while this film and its cosmic unknowable terror are eternal