Not THAT Thing or THIS Thing, but THE Thing...

This is a movie about a shapeshifting alien that is killing it's victims and replicating them to take over. Why? They don't really get into that, I guess The Thing is just a monstrous asshole. Maybe it feels threatened, maybe it wants to breed and populate like a virus, I don't know. Just it's killing off every person in this research faciliy in Antartica, every cell is alive so even a drop of blood from a corpse could be The Thing and it's up to Kurt Russell and his flamethrowing team of roughnecks to find out who's The Thing and prevent it from reaching the main population of Earth.

"What? Antartica is too cold? How 'bout I set you on fire? That'll make you more comfy, right?"
-R.J. MacReady

I'm trying not to show pictures of the creature as well... It's pretty sick and actually very surprising when you DO see it. The special effects are really well done and I remember first watching this as a teenager and being grossed out, freaked out, scared... Out. Seriously though, I nearly lost my dinner watching this as midnight with the lights off. The acting is pretty top notch too, everyone portrays their characters pretty well and when people start freaking out, the acting is all that much better. Supposably, the director (John Carpenter) didn't want actors to know who The Thing was until they shot specific scenes to help the actors really feel tense and surprised when things hit the fan.

"What're you doing with a revolver and not a flamethrower?"
-Fuchs
"I think you're maybe The Thing, R.J."
-Keith David as Childs

This is a pretty solid horror movie in the isolated kind of setting very similar to Alien... Which also has flamethrowers. Speaking of Alien, as much as I'm a firm believer of what Ridley Scott said in an interview about Alien (he didn't want to create a gory movie as he felt gore didn't fear, it creates disgust), this movie shows how you can utilize gore and disgust to create fear and scare people. Seriously, what kinda sick bastard wouldn't mind getting cornered by The Thing?! The Thing is icky f***ed up creature!

If there's anything about this movie I do have an issue with it's the slow pacing throughout the movie. True, it helps create tension and suspense when you KNOW there's something gonna happen soon, but there's too many occurances where The Thing doesn't pop out and people well, just go crazy. Hell, there's even scenes where R.J. MacReady kinda figures out how to outsmart The Thing involving people staying in groups, it gives too much of a "safe" feeling... But then things and people go to crazy town again and all Hell breaks loose for the climax of the film. But once again, there's a positive and negative way I look at the pacing. There's also minimal story in here and that sucks but then again, it adds to the horror that these guys don't fully understand what's going on and are stuck in this situation with no chance of getting help.

Overall, I'd have to give The Thing a 5 out 5 disgusting aliens impersonating it's prey. It's definitely one to check out at least once if you like scary movies.