The Thing

R.I.P. to Donald Moffat, aka Garry

"Was wondering when El Capitan was gonna get a chance to use his pop gun."

RIP, will rescreen this weekend.

(also, realizing Childs was Cameron Diaz' stepfather in There's Something About Mary is kinda jarring in retrospect.)

okay rescreened last night... Garry delivers one of the best lines in the film:

"I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!"

Still so classic. Kinda forget how great the exterior shots are on this. Also, need to track down the Director's Commentary again.

To me, great as it is, that's not even Moffat's best line in the movie. I love the way he says, "I know Bennings. I've known him for ten years. He's my friend."

I recently read that he came up with that line as an ad-lib, he wanted to add more to make the scene and the incident more personal.

Moffat was great in everything, I wish I'd seen him on stage since apparently he was really something as a theater actor. And he made for a fine, absurd, satirical version of LBJ in The Right Stuff (hardly historically accurate but funny) and a perfectly smarmy and duplicitous president in Clear and Present Danger.

Whoa - didn’t know that was him as LBJ.

Omar, thanks for that background on the movie!

you're welcome and hey, merry christmas

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVKJp56WIAA68Au.jpg

haha.

Okay, I made the mistake of re-screening the prequel/reboot which starts off nice enough, subtly controlled pacing and enough nods and believable plot mechanics until the 3rd act which is complete garbage. The final boss is such a CGI embarrassment I can't even believe this was made by a major studio, basically lacking in everything that makes the original film a classic. Woof!

Took a chance on a cheap 2016 DVD of Carpenter's but it's the same as the ropey 1999 one I already had. Not even full screen without stretching the aspect ratio. Does one have to go Blu-Ray for a more up to date transfer?

I watched this with my daughter the other week. She liked it, but probably because she is so used to gross effects and body horror in things like Stranger Things the gore stuff didn't do much for her. Though like everybody else she found the thumb slicing scene most disturbing out of everything, and the blood test scene got a jump out of her.

how old is she?

14.

there's nothing remotely as disturbing as the thing in stranger things but ymmv as i am a 35 year old man who is still mortified by some of the scenes in the thing and find it legitimately hard to watch

Kids today will have inevitably seen worse on network tv and YouTube.

there's worse in the white house

i suppose i just find the stuff in the thing very unheimlich which to me is worse than "gory" or violent or whatever. like i'll watch the red wedding on repeat for an hour before i'd watch one creepy scene from this movie

i'll watch the red wedding on repeat for an hour

That's pretty creepy.

banging tune tho

Had a "The Thing v Stranger Things" discussion with my GF the other day, trying to figure out if she would find The Thing too gross or scary. She is intrigued by The Thing based on my assertion that its the movie that scares me the most, but is worried it will be too gory or gross for her.
She is squeamish abt horror movies bc of gore, but also watches the shit out of stuff like Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, and Handmaids Tale, all of which feature what seem to me like extremely gory violence & gross monsters, disturbing deaths, etc. But there seems to be something abt the way that stuff reads as 'TV' to her that makes it not register in the same way as it does when she's watching something that she understands to be A Horror Movie.

Weirdly, I've never thought of The Thing as particularly gory, aside from maybe the defibrillator scene. At this point, anyone familiar with the extremes of cable entertainment should be able to handle it on that level. The general body horror might be another story. I could see the kennel scene in particular being a bit too much for the uninitiated.

the worst moment in the film is when mac is putting a current thru the blood and the wire scrapes and squeaks on the glass

to me The Thing is so over the top with the gore that the first time i saw it i was just amazed by creature and its various guises and attacks that i couldn't even be disgusted. i've never found it especially frightening either for whatever reason, though objectively i recognize why it's completely terrifying and grisly.

It's definitely one of the few movies with multiple characters scooping out innards from a carcass all while gagging and groaning and going yuck and covering their nose.

i'm the one who strips the turkey on thanksgiving and i feel like i'm always channeling Blair when i do it.

"This for instance, that's not dog."

lol

the shout factory bluray btw is extremely good, worth the extra cost imo.

I just bought the Arrow (UK) blu and the transfer is excellent (as are the extras):
https://images.arrowfilms.com/Images/cfdd61b4-051d-41ab-b5d8-42ac0e5664e1.png

mark s hugely OTM

John Carpenter’s The Thing, as performed by the claymated, Antarctic cast of the hit children’s animation Pingu. pic.twitter.com/NPkvvCKQuY

— Ally 👽 (@A_llyssa) July 8, 2019

This is genuinely amazing.

Isnt that from several years ago

yes, it says as much in the opening frame

Indeed, i just had never seen it before

nor I, and it was great

Amazing

Am afraid to watch.

The Thingu.

The Real Thingu.

Cast party on the set of John Carpenter's The Thing pic.twitter.com/gwoy53lDvK

— Eyes On Cinema (@RealEOC) August 2, 2019

keith david is such a fuckin’ delight

Nobody... nobody trusts anybody now, and we're all very tired.

— r.j macready (@thething_txt) November 21, 2019

John Carpenter’s The Thing pic.twitter.com/ir1v6aqnTY

— 41 Strange (@41Strange) November 19, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctq6T57TLtg

There's a storm hitting us in six hours, and we're gonna find out who's who.

— r.j macready (@thething_txt) February 1, 2020

otm

John Carpenter? Eh. Phil Harris had the original version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2H6qC23RPY

pic.twitter.com/NyVrgAlKBW

— Mike (@mcgee_gorgo) March 12, 2020

Lol surely he knew he was setting that up