LogFAQs > #980040727

Inviso - This is the sort of movie that makes me really glad to participate in these rankings, because its an iconic film, but Id never watched it (or had reason to spend time watching it) before now. But Im really glad this list gave me a reason to sit down and actually bang it out, because this is a great film. From minute one, youre given a mystery, starting with a helicopter of foreigners speaking Norwegian and shooting at a dog across a frozen tundra. And things just unravel from there, with the American Antarctic base getting a little too comfortable with the concept of a new dog around the base, and not questioning whether maybe those Norwegians WERENT just stir crazy. Sure, they travel to the base and find it utterly devastated (which is amazing in and of itself, and it part of the reason the 2011 prequel actually makes sense, because theres legitimately enough potential content for a whole second movie here), but still, its not until the kennel scene where we really understand the horrors of the movie.

The titular Thing is a great monster design, specifically because it takes inspiration from all sorts of things, and is ultimately a parasitic doppelganger. Seeing the dog skulls pop up throughout the movie is unsettling, but so is just the general body horror of slightly alter humans, complete with whipping tendrils and tentacles all over the place. And the general atmosphere of this group of isolated guys slowly losing trust with one another, while fearing for their lives because any one of them could be a monsterits great. Its also great to see a group of people faced with a monster, and theyre actually trying to make plans and intelligent decisions to stop it and beat it. I feel like a lot of these high kill count movies have people with no clue whats going on, just getting picked off one-by-one. The characters in this movie might be afraid, but theyre not stupid, and it makes their triumphs and failures feel that much more earned overall.

Seginustemple - Saturates the screen with paranoia by framing the core sci-fi/horror within an ensemble mystery in which there are so many characters you never get to know any of them too well and thus everyone always seems suspicious. I've seen this half-a-dozen times and I still have to rely on the petri dish scene to keep some of their names straight. It's such a rewatchable film, there are lots of details that reward careful observation but because it's never totally conclusive about who all is infected at any given moment you can always read the scenes differently, all the way to the famously ambiguous ending. I like the theory that the last bottle has kerosene, meaning Childs is an imposter because he doesn't react to it, but I can also see a reading where MacReady is the imposter, because we did see the torn-up uniform with his name on it earlier. Maybe they're both human at the end, but doomed anyway. The interpretive possibilities give the movie itself a slight shape-shifting quality that keeps it fresh every time.

Evilordexdeath - This is one of those movies that I don't really want to like because my entire online friend group won't stop going on about it, but in the end with some reluctance I admit it's really good. Responsibly paced, carefully made, similar to Alien in that the characters aren't very developed but they do have verisimilitude, and of course starring one of the coolest ideas for a horror movie antagonist with a creature that can perfectly impersonate a human being. The best parts of this movie are the paranoid confrontations between the research crew, where it seems like anyone could be a creature, however for me it suffers in the sequences where the monster does actually show up. Don't get me wrong, the special effects and everything are great, but you lose that uncertainty and a lot of the tension gets instantly sucked away. Still, these scenes are probably necessary to make the rest of the film work, and it's a relatively minor complaint on what is overall a super well done and gripping movie.

Fortybelowsummer - Welcome to US Outpost 31, where theres no women around but you can drink whiskey and smoke weed on the job and theres a good chance youll get to use a flamethrower. Just keep an eye on your fellow crew members, as they may have been assimilated by a ruthless alien being thats trying to take over the whole human race. Arguably the best sci-fi horror movie ever, The Thing cemented John Carpenter as a horror master. Its filled with suspenseful tension and paranoia throughout, punctuated by an ensemble of really solid acting performances. The special effects are top notch, a shocking spectacle of grotesque tentacled morphing that was unprecedented at the time and still stands up as a prime example of unsettling horror visuals. The ending is intentionally ambiguous, which in this case is more thought provoking than annoying. Its most likely that Macready and Childs just wait out their distrust until their inevitable deaths, but whether or not you think that either of them is infected, its interesting to think about, and its a hell of a ride getting there.

Johnbobb - I watched The Thing years back after hearing a lot about how great it was, and tbh I fell asleep. Not because of the movie itself, most likely, but I never got the desire to start it back up agian. I'm glad to have reason to give it another shot, because it really is excellent body horror. Antartica makes for such an excellent location for the social isolation/paranoia horror, especially with the heavy fire usage juxtaposing against the frozen environment (is it normal for Antarctic researchers to have so many flamethrowers though?)

Karo - In this movie adaptation of Among Us, alien imposters infiltrate the crew of an antarctic research station as everyone flips out and degrades into paranoia and backstabbing.

It is entertaining to try and figure out who are the monsters, and the story laudably avoids making it too obvious to the viewers. But I would have liked to have seen more of the deaths result from human lunacy, they way they were going on it is miracle that they only ended up killing one non-imposter over the course of the movie's events.

It isn't quite up to the level of Alien, but it makes the best of what it has. It's not something I'd ever want to watch again, but I guess it is a decent enough film.