― mark s, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jel --, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
i) how many Antartic research bases have flamethrowers and automatic weapons lying around?
ii) how come their base seems to have normal 24 hour days, despite being below the Antartic circle?
― DV, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
The blood test scene is one of the greatest movie moments ever; terrific Morricone score (mostly electronic, IIRC, something of a rarity and an obv. trib to Carpenter); even Kurt Russell doing his Clint schtick was OK (I love the moment when he pours whiskey into his computer!) Plus a really sharp script by Burt Lancaster's son!
I used to really like Anne Bilson's film reviews in Time Out, although sadly her vampire nov was a bit rub. Still I think I'd like to read this too. What a great, great flick.
― Andrew L, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
they need pistols and flamethrowers in case the norwegians invade (when amundsen landed in "scott"s sphere of operations" in 1911, there was serious if brief discussion of the possibility of invading the norwegian camp and disabling the amundsen exhibition = they had guns available, for stray polar bears?) (haha very stray: polar bears = arctic not anarctic) (and yeah, no flamethrowers) (but anyway don't the Carpenter lot soup up the flamethrower from some more ordinary oxy-acetylene torch gizmo?)
The Thing is a masterful horror movie, which improves upon Hawks original by having a better monster (after all that giant carrot...) This body horror has never been bettered - the actual melting of people.....
Want to read this book. I want to read Quirke's Jaws book. I want to see more of these films with themed canapes and bouze afterwards.
― Pete, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
ho ho, I didn't realise I was making a joke... I just can't stop being funny.
I agree with the points about mechanical rather than cgi effects. and there is a lot to like about the film.
it was slightly ruined for me by seeing it in a room with a load of sweaty horror fans, preceded by a documentary on Carpenter that had all the best bits in it. Which was annoying... I'd already heard about the "you gotta be fucking kidding" bit but had been at great pains not to spoil it for special friend Irene, and then the cockfarming documentary did it for me.
The Thing is still not as good as Assault On Precinct 13.
(the secret nagging question is: SO WHAT IF THE THING IMITATES US EXACTLY? If we are all turned into exact copies of ourselves, what has changed? "Go with the flow maan, resistance is futile... gooey tentacloid palps? bring em on!!")
― mark s, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
Arctic circle is a grebt place to set a vampire film btw.
― Pete, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
i read the story when i was like 12 and it *really really* spooked me (the monster is described, apparently dead, in the first para, oh no!! it has THREE EYES!! OH NO!!): in the bit where they do the blood test, mcready is testing 35 ppl!! carpenter cuts it down to a slightly less pedantic four, i think
― Alan Trewartha, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ray M, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
the gender thing she says was probably the last possible moment they could cast the way they did: actually not strictly speaking "realistic" (antarctic stations had been mixed sex since the 50s), it was for emotional-narrative focus as much as anything
the question of blair's infection is interesting, because so deliberately left ambiguous i. on hand he jumps to the "it's a shapeshifting alien much too quickly", ii. on the other, he destroys the helicopters/radio etc, iii. on the third hand he misdirects mac towards clark (who ends up being shot and then turning out NOT to have been thinged) => billson points out that the unspoken question is, if you become a thing and it becomes you, how much of YOUR behaviour wd be a mask and how much wd be real...
i suspect childs's thing-dom is kept exactly as ambiguous (and remember someone finds a bit of mac's torn clothing: so he's not out of the picture, just cz he's the hero => yes he's behaving mac-like, but then the thing-that-became-mac WOULD, to fool the others or fool us!!)
http://www.arahne.si/Arachne06.jpg
― Sean, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― g-kit, Monday, 19 August 2002 08:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― toby (tsg20), Monday, 19 August 2002 09:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
Any other films with absolutely no women in at all. Actually - nu thread...
― Pete, Monday, 19 August 2002 09:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ray M (rdmanston), Thursday, 22 August 2002 17:22 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 22 August 2002 22:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 23 August 2002 10:53 (twenty-one years ago) link
(also it stars frodo)
― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 8 September 2002 21:11 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Graham (graham), Sunday, 8 September 2002 21:22 (twenty-one years ago) link
― vic (vicc13), Sunday, 8 September 2002 21:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
(the caffeine (= coke obv) scene = brilliant loving parody of the scalpel/test-tubes scene)
― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 8 September 2002 21:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
― vic (vicc13), Sunday, 8 September 2002 21:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 8 September 2002 21:35 (twenty-one years ago) link
― vic (vicc13), Sunday, 8 September 2002 21:41 (twenty-one years ago) link
http://www.hbo.com/films/laramie/img/photo_cast_clea.jpg
jordana = cookiecutter brunette "looker" zzzzz
― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 8 September 2002 21:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
Hott brasilian-american with wonderful hairhttp://www.tiramillas.net/cine/atodo/jordana.jpg
and goth poseur(real goths have black hair)http://www.hbo.com/films/laramie/img/photo_cast_clea.jpg
― Chupa-Cabras (vicc13), Sunday, 8 September 2002 22:02 (twenty-one years ago) link
― boxcubed (boxcubed), Sunday, 8 September 2002 22:03 (twenty-one years ago) link
(Actually I only like her cos she reminds me of dreamy skate-punk princess Lois, who has way better hair)
― Graham (graham), Sunday, 8 September 2002 22:49 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Monday, 24 February 2003 23:53 (twenty-one years ago) link
coz ok i just watched the movie and then "remembered" this whole mark s bit where he's totally sympathizing with the "thing" and spins this great hypothesis about how mcready is clearly "thing" but has decided by the strength of his will to be human that it doesn't matter. and also about how the "thing" is always in us, and in fact is our mutual fear and at the end, reduced to panic, everyone is reduced to "fire cleans all" which is as unscientific as you can get (and clearly the surface-opposition is science v. grotesque).
also about how blair ceases to panic and becomes "okay" when he reaches the same conclusion w/r/t the "thing" -- i.e. that it doesn't matter.
all of which i guess is part of the "so what if the thing imitates us exactly" except it's also all the BAD things the thing does are entirely human. except the thing gets to make k-cool spaceships too!
i may also have read all this elsewhere.
okay I need to read the book and see "the faculty" now.
also the initial scene with the thing and the dogs is totally horrifying as is the arms-getting-chomped scene, and the way the narrative closure with the two burned stations kicks this whole "statement of human nature" thing into high-gear.
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 06:21 (twenty years ago) link
(if true, this is the coolest thing evah btw) (best aspect: it can be totally real and totally unproveable simultaneously)
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 14:51 (twenty years ago) link
― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 16:34 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 17:44 (twenty years ago) link
― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 17:45 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 17:46 (twenty years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 17:53 (twenty years ago) link
I thought that Blair WAS a "thing" by that point, that it had assimilated him just before he could hang himself (a noose in the background, isn't there?). But according to this, realising a lack of difference between the thing and the not-thing = becoming the thing-in-itself?
― Neil Willett (Neil Willett), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 20:13 (twenty years ago) link
so maybe I do like this film after all.
― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 23:21 (twenty years ago) link
I saw it and didn’t notice any of the issues that guy talks about - maybe they fixed it after he kicked up a fuss
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Monday, 18 July 2022 12:58 (two years ago) link
lol this thread is 20 years old, anyway merry xmas ilxors whatever yr cells are up to
pic.twitter.com/wNrVs3not9— Caligula (@TheHolyKnife) December 19, 2022
― mark s, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 18:47 (one year ago) link
watching christian nyby's version for the first time in 40 yrs
― mark s, Friday, 10 February 2023 20:17 (one year ago) link
it's p good but it's no THE THING
in conclusion: watch the skies!
― mark s, Friday, 10 February 2023 20:59 (one year ago) link
clear up a debate for me re: this dialogue exchange
Macready: Blair, have you seen Fuchs?Blair: I don't wanna stay out here any more. I wanna come back inside.I hear funny things out here.Macready: Have you come across Fuchs?Blair: It ain't Fuchs. It ain't Fuchs.
Blair: I don't wanna stay out here any more. I wanna come back inside.I hear funny things out here.
Macready: Have you come across Fuchs?
Blair: It ain't Fuchs. It ain't Fuchs.
to me it's obviously saying "the guy you think is Fuchs isn't Fuchs anymore" (either paranoia from real Blair or misdirection by Thing Blair, depending on if he's been turned yet.) The flipside to that argument goes, Blair is saying Fuchs isn't a "thing".
a shocking number of people online believe the latter.
anyway, a GREAT movie.
― omar little, Thursday, 17 August 2023 21:21 (eleven months ago) link
Just came in #3 in an '80s critics' poll:
https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/best-80s-movies/the-thing-1982directed-by-john-carpentershown-kurt-russell-2/
― fair but so uncool beliefs here (Eric H.), Thursday, 17 August 2023 21:30 (eleven months ago) link
xp You're right.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 17 August 2023 21:52 (eleven months ago) link
I am in the camp that believes that exchange is Thing-Blair stalling so that he can finish constructing his ship and possibly needing to forage for more supplies.
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 17 August 2023 21:58 (eleven months ago) link
I saw this film probably half a dozen times back in high school, mostly while shitfaced.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 17 August 2023 22:02 (eleven months ago) link
Nice list - I mean, it would be better with less American films but it's pretty good xps
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 17 August 2023 22:20 (eleven months ago) link
Just read the Billson BFI book in one sitting. Really excellent stuff, and very interesting to me for its sections focusing on compare/contrast with the Campbell novella and the Hawks film.
She really has a good eye for Carpenter's directing and structure, too. The little moments of brilliant misdirection (Clark's scalpel, Childs and Garry pushing back on Mac during the blood test), the singularly excellent casting and characterization, the escalating isolation (winter, storm approaching, no one answering, destroyed comms), etc.
Not much of this is really extremely new to me, but it's still so fascinating and nice to read something from someone who was deeply, deeply getting it at a point when so many critics were still thoroughly missing the point.
― omar little, Wednesday, 27 December 2023 16:15 (seven months ago) link
Just saw this in the theater for the first time. It’s a totally different movie with a crowd.
― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 16 February 2024 15:29 (five months ago) link
Finally got round to watching this before the apocalypse
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 26 February 2024 23:14 (five months ago) link
This story is an interesting take
The Things by Peter Watts
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 26 February 2024 23:23 (five months ago) link
There is also Adam Roberts's THE THING ITSELF.
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 26 February 2024 23:31 (five months ago) link
"This was one of the first movies where the Black guy lasts to the final scene. I don’t think I’m the only brother who’s ever survived in a horror or sci-fi movie, but I’m certainly one of the few. It was great foresight on John’s part"
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/mar/25/john-carpenter-kurt-russell-the-thing-horror-classic
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 25 March 2024 18:13 (four months ago) link
And in a situation where you don't really know which, between two people, actually "survived," adding to the fun
― Rich E. (Eric H.), Monday, 25 March 2024 19:48 (four months ago) link
Playing the next few days at Film Forum as part of their Out of the 80s retro.
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 31 May 2024 23:00 (one month ago) link
Enjoyed this but maybe the Hawks is still better
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 June 2024 13:02 (one month ago) link
tying james redd to the rec room sofa and making him decide which film is better is my mcready moment
*pulses flamethrower a little, to test it has the juice just in case*
― mark s, Saturday, 1 June 2024 13:21 (one month ago) link
lmao
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 1 June 2024 16:06 (one month ago) link
You're gonna find out what you already know, MacReady.
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 June 2024 20:13 (one month ago) link
Have you watched the Norwegian prequel?
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 June 2024 20:14 (one month ago) link
It’s pointless.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Sunday, 2 June 2024 12:11 (one month ago) link
Yeah, seemed to be from the description
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 June 2024 13:12 (one month ago) link
Hadn't realized John Carpenter had directed the Kurt Russell made-for-TV Elvis.
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 June 2024 13:35 (one month ago) link
One thing this one has going for it is that Carpenter restored much of the original plot of "Who Goes There?" including the characters's names but also the shape-shifting aspects of the alien and the related testing at the end.
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 June 2024 13:36 (one month ago) link
TIL (well YIL) that Charles K. Feldman was Howard Hawks's agent, that Hawks's business partner in the 1951 production Edward Lasker was married to Jane Greer (much to the consternation of Howard Hughes) and that Margaret Sheridan who played Nikki was a Hawksian protogée orignally slated to appear in Red River (where Nyby supposedly saved the day with his editing which is why he was rewarded with this directing job or credit) but was pregnant which is why the role went to Joanne Dru instead.
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 June 2024 13:40 (one month ago) link
Also liked the homage of the title sequence image.
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 June 2024 13:43 (one month ago) link
Really need to read that Campbell bio properly.
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 June 2024 13:44 (one month ago) link
Which book says Campbell may have been somewhat inspired by Lovecraft, since "At the Mountains of Madness" was serlalized in Astounding, even though in general he disliked Lovecraft.
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 June 2024 19:04 (one month ago) link
jules verne wrote a novel called THE SPHINX OF THE ICEFIELDS (1897)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/%27The_Sphinx_of_the_Ice_Fields%27_by_George_Roux_69a.jpg
― mark s, Sunday, 2 June 2024 19:46 (one month ago) link
that uh “sphinx” looks like the melted nazi from raiders of the lost ark bad vibes imo
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 2 June 2024 20:03 (one month ago) link
old-timey pictures of the sphinx which are terrible
― mark s, Sunday, 2 June 2024 20:49 (one month ago) link
That Jules Verne is a sequel to Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym, which is maybe proto-Thing as well?
― with hidden noise, Monday, 3 June 2024 05:12 (one month ago) link
https://pulpcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/13_astounding_1936_02_brown-600x849.jpg
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 June 2024 07:24 (one month ago) link
proof if proof be need be
― mark s, Monday, 3 June 2024 07:59 (one month ago) link
How do people feel about THE FOG?
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 June 2024 17:20 (one month ago) link
Basically love it, with the possible exception of when I'm actively watching it
― Rich E. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 4 June 2024 17:36 (one month ago) link
Heh
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 June 2024 18:08 (one month ago) link
It's playing at the FF on Thursday.
I was being a little flip ... the moments I genuinely love about The Fog are actually the moments where it feels like the plot is refusing to kick in, like it's really going to just coast on vibes like the best parts of Halloween did
― Rich E. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 4 June 2024 18:55 (one month ago) link
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTI1MDM5NDUwOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTc1MzkxMQ@@._V1_.jpg
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 5 June 2024 01:56 (one month ago) link
by John W. Campbell, Jr. (as Don A. Stuart) The place stank. A queer, mingled stench that only the ice-buried cabins of an Antarctic camp know, compounded of reeking human sweat, and the heavy, fish-oil stench of melted seal blubber. An overtone of liniment combated the musty smell of sweat-and-snow-drenched furs. The acrid odor of burnt cooking fat, and the animal, not-unpleasant smell of dogs, diluted by time, hung in the air.
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 7 June 2024 06:03 (one month ago) link
same energy: a: "The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning."
b: "The room stank of demons."
― mark s, Friday, 7 June 2024 08:53 (one month ago) link
lol
― Billion Year Polyphonic Spree (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 7 June 2024 15:42 (one month ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/L3sg6Vg.jpeg
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Friday, 21 June 2024 11:33 (one month ago) link
look i know it’s alien but i thought you guys would appreciate
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Friday, 21 June 2024 11:34 (one month ago) link
an alienne cheftburfting vpon the table of a man
― katy perry (prison service) (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 21 June 2024 12:12 (one month ago) link