We've seen this gore before
The Thing: a B-movie déjà vu. Film review
John Carpenter's legendary creature-feature The Thing (itself a remake of a 1950s B-movie) gets a glossy new makeover in this competent but rather redundant prequel. Set a few days prior to the events of Carpenter's 1982 film, we follow the disintegration of the Norwegian exploration team originally dispatched to investigate the discovery of an alien spaceship, and a mysterious frozen life form, deep beneath the ice.
Yes, once again there's something nasty in the woodshed, and there's no Kurt Russell to sort things out. Those who held Carpenter's earlier film in high regard (and it is has enjoyed something of a reappraisal over the years) remember it chiefly for its ingenious latex special effects, its broody Alien-inflected claustrophobia, and its ghoulish, twitchy-eyed sense of fun (Roger Ebert famously described it as “a great barf-bag movie”).
And indeed, it takes a certain amount of unhinged chutzpah to devise such schlock-horror set pieces as a man's torso transforming into huge jaws that bite off a doctor's arms (complete with wristwatch and defibrillator), or the now infamous “head-crab” scene in which a head, disengaged from aforementioned torso, grows legs and eyestalks before scuttling off into the darkness. Unashamedly grotesque, Carpenter's The Thing belonged to that peculiar subgenre of ‘body horror', where the disintegrating human form gave ample scope for some marvellously baroque and gory obscenities.
I could enthuse about Carpenter's The Thing for hours, but how does the new prequel-cum-remake compare? Well, there are many things here to enjoy. The special effects, although not quite as icky and physical as Rob Bottin's incredible creations, are still satisfyingly repulsive, and certainly push the upper limit of what is permitted in a 15-rated film. The female protagonist Dr Lloyd (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is also enjoyable in a stoical, Ellen Ripley sort of way, although she's not given much time to develop the character given the squishy shenanigans taking place all around her.
However, The Thing's principal problem lies in that unwieldy phrase from earlier: “prequel-cum-remake”. The film seems unable to decide whether it's a committed prequel, adhering to the continuity of the previous film whilst adding detail to its backstory, or if it's straightforwardly remaking the 1982 movie with the benefit of modern special effects. The result is a gnawing sense of déjà vu as we revisit, with almost religious reverence, the most memorable scenes from the earlier film.
Every now and then director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. will throw the fans a scrap of continuity, and there's a real effort to cover the narrative join between the end of this film and the start of Carpenter's, but overall this remake never quite manages to achieve its own sense of identity, but remains a rather mechanical rehash of an already excellent original.
As such, The Thing is a solidly made and entertaining horror romp, but is never quite a match for its notorious predecessor.
Rating: ***
N2 film reviews – supported by Newbury Vue
