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> REVIEW

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The Thing (2011)

 

Every story has a beginning…

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By Conor Hunter | December 2011

 

 

DIRECTOR: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.

WRITER: Eric Heisserer

 

The Thing (2011) is a prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 creature-feature, The Thing, which is in turn a remake of the 1951 film, The Thing From Another Planet.  The film was supposedly changed to a prequel from a remake because the filmmakers felt they couldn’t do it any better.  Ironically, Carpenter retained the tone and paranoia of the original in his straight remake, while adding his own stamp in the form of some of the greatest horror special effects of all time.

 

Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.’s prequel meanwhile, adds nothing to Carpenter’s film, apart from a lot of unnecessary back-story and some stylistic elements of Ridley Scott’s Alien.

 

The 2011 film leads right up the start of the events of Carpenter’s version and the discovery of the Norwegian camp.  This camp, however, is now populated by a number of Americans, for no apparent reason other than subtitles don’t sell seats. Depending on how you feel about the characters’ journey to the source of the mimetic aliens, the back-story added to Carpenter’s original falls somewhere between pointless and sacrilegious.

 

Carpenter’s film was one of the last truly great uses of animatronic and prosthetic special effects, creating terrifyingly real-looking aliens.  Like I Am Legend, the extensive use of computer graphics in the prequel remove any hint of reality.  Not to mention that Freudian analysts will have a field day with the creature design, suggesting a similar fear to that explored in Teeth.

 

Most of the performances are fairly underwhelming, though the actors are not helped by the abundance of cliché and stock characters (to complement the cliché direction and soundtrack).  From the scientist blinded by his work to the headstrong, bloodthirsty pilot, this really is creature-feature-horror-by-numbers.  One exception is Mary Elizabeth Winstead who, despite essentially channelling Ripley from Alien, gives a commanding and understated performance that emphasises the over-acting of her co-stars.

 

When analysed as a film on its own right then The Thing is simply another average horror movie, with the requisite number of unexpected jumps, gruesome deaths and horrifying creatures that does nothing to upset or subvert the genre.  When compared to Carpenter’s film, it is a pointless and shameless rip-off that removes all the ingenuity and bite of the original. 

 

Script…………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

Most of what occurs in Eric Heisserer’s script could have been lifted directly

from Carpenter’s film and those parts that have been added give unnecessary

back-story and remove the fear of the unknown.  1

 

Direction………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. manages to tick all the boxes with a few nice

homage’s but essentially fails to bring anything new to the sci-fi/horror genre.

2

 

Verdict…………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

Effective for its market, but fans of the 1982 original will undoubtedly be

disappointed and confused by this soulless retread.  2

 

 

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