Funny thing about trust . . . it melts in the presence of real terror.
Swift shot: Terror is back! Everything you ever wanted in a sci-fi horror flick . . . plus Norwegians! Fear and paranoia grips everyone; you’ll be guessing who “The Thing” is the whole film! There are some grandiose shots, excellent special effects, but nothing is so over the top that it dwarfs the sequel’s efforts. (The sequel shot in 1982)
Set in the early 80’s, like John Carpenter’s classic, this new film serves as a direct, seamless prequel to that incredibly fascinating, yet disturbing, feature. Based on a pulp novella written in 1938 by John W. Campbell, Jr., “Who Goes There” has now inspired three films. I must confess, I have yet to see the 1951 film “The Thing From Another World” – which focused more on the Cold War according to my production notes.
Believe it or not, for many complicated reasons, I had never seen John Carpenter’s “The Thing” until this year! Some film lover, right? But, I am glad I waited, because I was primed for the prequel and intrigued with how a Dutch commercial director, Matthijs van Heijningen, was going to take a film set in the 80’s, release it in 2011, and make it all make sense without creating special effects that would be considered over the top by 1982’s standards.
The plot is basic, but the story is not. Plot – alien crashes on Earth and chills out for a few hundred thousand years, wakes up with a mean hangover and an ability to mimic foes. The story though is about the characters slowly, or rapidly in some instances, devolving into creatures of fear themselves. Abject paranoia ultimately leads to carnage and lots of crispy critters.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) led the cast with a startling performance as Kate Lloyd, a paleontologist who is offered the adventure of several lifetimes. Initially, she is told only that she needs to make up her mind immediately and that the assignment is in Antarctica. Her invitation comes from one snarky, pompous Dr. Sander Halvorson who is played perfectly by Ulrich Thomsen, as you want to punch him square in the face several times throughout the film. That’s all you need out of an actor, make the audience either love, loathe, or otherwise believe they are their character. To whit, Thomsen deserves my respect – because I hated the man!
With a lot of these horror films, you get the typical walking cord-wood characters, lacking depth, little exposition and really only around so the leads don’t “get it” too early. That is probably my only real fault with the film, many of the characters were exactly as I just described, pointless bags of flesh just waiting to die and/or become the Thing. Still, some of them had more personality than others. I’m no great fan of Eric Christian Olsen, but he was decent as the facilitator to put Kate in the story, after that not much is ever revealed about him.
With all these Norwegians running around you might think this film was subtitled throughout – yes, and no. I really liked the clever use of Norwegian when it was convenient to hold secret council in front of other non-Norsk characters. It was well deployed without being over used and gave more of that “trust no one” sense in those scenes. To make sure the whole film wasn’t just a bunch of drunk Norwegians running around starting fires, there were two American pilots in the camp. Braxton Carter, played by Australian actor Joel (Owen Lars, anyone?) Edgerton [currently starring in “Warrior”] and Jameson played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Lost, Oz) who serves as Carter’s co-pilot.
The camp is headed by a turtle-neck clad Edvard Wolner, played by Norwegian actor Trond Espen Seim. Odds are you haven’t seen him in anything, mindre du er Norsk? Yea, I didn’t think so.
Everyone is afraid of something, maybe this Thing will keep you up at night . . . I know it would if I lived in Antarctica, for sure! The effects are terrifying, on the same scale of purely horrifying creature sequences from Carpenter’s work. You will not be disappointed; nothing looks overtly CGI, and the scenes where the Thing is pursuing its victims might just have your butt puckering ever so slightly. Case in point, some deficient assbag in front of me (wearing a NY Jets hat, no less) kept talking out loud to his friend when shit started getting just a little too intense . . . pussy. He was trying to remove himself from the film, I mean, need I say anymore? A film that demands you separate from it so you don’t get too damaged . . . that’s a solid film!
Like all the other Things out there, this film focuses on paranoia – I read a quote from producer Eric Newman that I wanted to share here, “More than ever, we live in a time where if there is an enemy, it’s very likely that the enemy’s not someone you would suspect. The bad guys don’t wear uniforms anymore.” This is the purest message about paranoia vs. trust and while the Cold War may be over, we are in a new war . . . a war on Terror, so fitting that “The Thing” is a metaphor for the old adage, trust no one and carry a large flame-thrower!
“The Thing” is definitely not for everyone, it’s scary, because . . . shit, it could be true, you don’t know! How many of you have explored every square inch of our planet and aren’t we learning about new undiscovered species on a daily basis . . . still, in 2011? I think what I overheard while leaving the theater sums it up beautifully, when a woman, probably in her mid-seventies, turned to her husband, “We need a flame-thrower now!” This film is best viewed in theaters, because the effects and professional attention to detail simply demand it!
