John Carpenter's 'The Thing' was released in 1982 and is one of my favourite films of all time, so I was really looking forward to watching the new one released a few days ago. I was worried it was going to be a remake but was relieved to see it was a prequel!
The 1980's 'The Thing' was about an American camp in Antarctica that starts with Norwegians from another camp chasing and trying to kill a husky dog, reaching them. We are lead to believe its just a normal dog, but when the Americans go to investigate the Norwegian camp it becomes clear somethings not right. At first they assume its cabin fever but discover a destroyed camp and burnt and twisted bodies everywhere. The Americans return to their camp with a body to do an autopsy on and their medics find its not human. At his point all hell breaks loose. 'The Thing' starts spreading and infecting, first the husky dogs, then the people and its a fight for survival. The film ends with 2 Americans surviving uninfected, they have managed to kill 'The Thing', but have destroyed their camp in the process and are now alone in Antarctica with no shelter and no idea if rescue is coming.
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| The 1980s The Thing |
'The Thing' released this year is a prequel that shows us what happened at the Norwegian camp. The Norwegian team picks up on a distress beacon and while looking for the source crashes through the ice to discover an alien ship. They gather a specialist team to excavate an alien creature that has been frozen in the ice and take it back to camp. Shortly after 'The Thing' starts thawing and breaks out of the ice, the Norwegians hunt and kill 'The Thing' but it has already killed and infected people. They do an autopsy on the creature to find a partially replicated/absorbed team member. They learn at this point 'The Thing' imitates people but can't replicate inorganic mater such as fillings or implants. After finding some fillings and blood in the shower they realise someone among them is infected. 'The Thing' attacks and members of the Norwegian camp start dieing off and becoming infected. The result is the camp gets destroyed with charred bodies everywhere. Two survivors chase 'The Thing' back to its ship where they kill it and destroy part of the ship. The film ends with 2 survivors chasing the dog in a helicopter, which is where the 1980s 'The Thing' kicks off.
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| Alien ship |
I've always wanted to know what happened in the Norwegian camp so I really enjoyed the film. It was great to see the environments from the 1980s film recreated so you can see what they used to be like and what happened to destroy them. All the bodies that were found in the 1980s are explained in the new film and you can see what really happened there. I liked the creature design and the fact you got to see alot more of 'The Thing' and its ship in this film. 'The Thing' has a fantastic well thought out creature design and seems very similar to the creature design in 'Dead Space' a game which I really enjoy.
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| Alien in ice block |
The film hasn't got the best reviews as people seem to think it was a unnecessary addition that doesn't live up to the first. I personally thought it was a really good film and well worth a watch. The CG can be a little poor in places but it doesn't really affect the film and I thought it was awesome being able to find out what happened at the Norwegian camp.
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| The thing on fire! |
8 out of 10!
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