The Thing

During transformation its "brain" is presumably quite basic: I think it's like a workman shuffling through all its tools to see which one will work, waiting for a kind of muscle-memory instinct to kick in: "It's slimy pistil time" -- but it only knows this when a bit of the pistil sort of quivers in readiness as it forms...

I am off to the pub now.

The "orchid" is in the dog compound -- a sort of flowerhead that pokes out at MacReady, while the big talons are smashing through the roof. It's what jumpstarts him into frying it.

An "orchid" made out of dog tongues with teeth running down the middle, no less:

http://thing.popapostle.com/images/episodes/The-Thing/flower-of-dog-tongues.JPG

that moment above was one of the 'HOLY FUCK' ones in this film - but i think the 'orchid thing' (itself in the same bracket) is just a wee bit earlier than that ?
it's when the dogthing's head first splits open, but the main body is still intact (albeit quickly punctured by spiny bug/crustacean legs)
- the head kind of 'peels back' into 4 flesh-petals, and a tentacle/tongue comes thrashing out from the neck cavity - the whole thing looks like a giant horrible orchid...

ref. the 'intelligence' - love the idea of it being a low-level lifeform 'hijacking' whatever is to hand - but i like how the dog, before we know it is a dogthing, is already acting in a sinisterly 'deliberate' way - e.g. that moment when it is peering intently through the window, as they return from the saucer investigation - and it gave me the impression that it was much cleverer than a normal dog.
('saucer-building activities hampered by lack of opposable thumbs - must temporarily grow some when no-one is looking')

oops not 'saucer investigation' - 'visit to the norwegian camp'

I actually always read the dog as being sort of confused and uncomfortable, like it knows something is wrong with it but can't articulate it ... because it's a dog. Sort of the way dogs bark at the weather.

it's almost like at the moment of transformation it has to recapitulate all its prior transformations, sort of a "greatest hits" (play the old stuff first, then play the new stuff)

In the making of documentary included on DVD, I recall Bottin mentioning that the final Thing incorporated elements of it's previous incarnations: dog parts, Blair head, etc.

Trivia from Bottin's Wikipedia page...

From there, Bottin's reputation grew when he again worked with Carpenter on The Thing. Bottin worked on The Thing seven days a week (including late nights) for a year and five weeks straight, making himself so ill in the process that John Carpenter had him admitted to a hospital when production was complete.[4]

Bottin also worked on the Star Wars cantina scene creatures.[5] He was, in fact, the tallest player in the Cantina band. He kept some of the masks from that scene in his private collection.

amazing thing abt bottin is how young he was when he did the howling and the thing, like 19 or 20

iirc the dvd documentary is pretty interesting - carpenter smoking a cigarette - but v v static, just endless headshots speaking direct to camera.

Trivia from Bottin's Wikipedia page...

From there, Bottin's reputation grew when he again worked with Carpenter on The Thing. Bottin worked on The Thing seven days a week (including late nights) for a year and five weeks straight, making himself so ill in the process that John Carpenter had him admitted to a hospital when production was complete.[4]
Bottin also worked on the Star Wars cantina scene creatures.[5] He was, in fact, the tallest player in the Cantina band. He kept some of the masks from that scene in his private collection.

― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Thursday, August 25, 2011 2:25 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah, im positive this is why bottin is semi-retired, along with the industry seachanges wrt practical effects. he put so much energy into every movie, and he's not so young anymore!

pete baran's theory -- which i love but cannot endorse -- is that the Thing is an Actual Real Elder Shoggoth already on ancient Earth when the alien saucer crashed in the ice beside it, thawing it out. The alien/s were thrown clear and then Thingified. And etc. Hence why the bugs and the flowers are earth-ish, I guess.

Want to say that Bottin is, like Savini, sort of in a behind the scenes advisor capacity. Greg Nicotero, however, flies the banner high for practical gore effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS6Rs3NgxiM

Wow, Bottin did "The Howling,'' "The Thing," "Robocop," "Total Recall," "Se7en" and "Fight Club." Looks like he built up quite the relationship with Joe Dante (with whom he did five or so movies, plus Verhoeven. No credits on IMDB past, um, "Mr. Deeds," in 2002. What's up with that?

like i said, he's basically retired

you dont work on Serving Sara and get away clean

http://static2.aintitcool.com/images2009/ThingRobFace.jpg

Reading a couple of related interviews he seems more than retired. Like he totally dropped off the map.

Actually, last semi-reliable mention I found was that he's in real estate!

The doc on the Thing DVD is great. Lotsa interviews with the actors and Carpenter and Bottin.

Wow, Bottin did "The Howling,'' "The Thing," "Robocop," "Total Recall," "Se7en" and "Fight Club." Looks like he built up quite the relationship with Joe Dante (with whom he did five or so movies, plus Verhoeven. No credits on IMDB past, um, "Mr. Deeds," in 2002. What's up with that?

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, August 26, 2011 1:13 AM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

like i said, he's basically retired

― https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i_qxQztHRI (Princess TamTam), Friday, August 26, 2011 1:19 AM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you dont work on Serving Sara and get away clean

― https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i_qxQztHRI (Princess TamTam), Friday, August 26, 2011 1:20 AM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol^

Antarctic scientist finds creature. Gory horror remake. Power-of-suggestion original was much better. Read the review
NY Times

If it's the most vividly guesome monster ever to stalk the screen that audiences crave, then The Thing is the thing. On all other levels, however, John Carpenter's remake of Howard Hawks' 1951 sci-fi classic comes as a letdown. full review
Variety Staff, Variety

Because this material has been done before, and better, especially in the original The Thing and Alien, there's no need to see this version. full review
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19820101/REVIEWS/201010349

One of the aspects the Billson book discusses over several early pages is the reviewer response when Carpenter's film came out: which really was was 99% negative, when not actively hostile then baffled (pretty sure she includes a bad-review quote from Ebert). She was a young critic, I think at Time Out, and loved it: the NME critic Richard Cook had good stuff to say (also very shrewd, iirc, he was a great critic); but mainstream and genre comment was not positive, across the board. She says it only gathered its rep via video and cult word-of-mouth: and even in 1997, when her book came out, it was still seen as an outsider film, and a daring one to be writing a BFI modern classic about.

But more about my remake Scando-fusion: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, THING. They are of course THE SAME FILM ANYWAY: "am i standing next to an inhuman monster/am i standing next to the MOLE" -- "in the bleakly inhospitable, icy and distant reaches of Whitehall, a group of men are turned inside out by their own paranoias..."

wtf i could swear i read somewhere that Bottin died in the 80's. pretty cool that I'm wrong.

He was the pirate captain in the Fog too, which is just aces

http://www.411mania.com/siteimages/the-fog-movie_73989.jpg

gah why haven't i ever seen the fog?? must correct this immediately!

it is literally impossible to post images from the fog on the internet: the film is cursed

http://www.411mania.com/siteimages/the-fog-movie_73989.jpg

curse lifted by switching on brane

The Fog is scary as shit, and totally slept on by fans and director alike. Carpenter considers is a failure!

it's kinda hokey imo

Fog missing something ... like the action is spread too wide. Carpenter works better in closed quarters.

pink poop!

gah why haven't i ever seen the fog?? must correct this immediately!

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, August 26, 2011 8:18 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

same

The Fog is awesome! It was on all of the time when our family first got cable and it seemed so completely terrifying.

And it's on Netflix instant view. Housebound due to hurricane movie watching weekend material - yes!

I think it lends itself to stormy weather watching.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.

I like the Fog but it's no Thing.

Back in the 80s when I shared a flat with my sister and this French dude, we had gone off to Shropshire for xmas with mum and dad, and Philippe was watching The Fog alone in the TV room. He went to bed already quite scared, and as he was dropping off the ceiling fell in on the sofa he's been sitting on, like half a ton of bricks!

He told us he lay in bed staring into the dark for about three hours before he plucked up courage to investigate.

watched the Fog recently actually - there's good stuff in it but the pacing is very strange, probably due to the brutal last-minute re-editing

Oh, yeah. I admire it despite its flaws. Carpenter originally wanted it to be more of a spooky ghost story, which it is, but they made him add some shocks and grue.

Personal Life

Carpenter is a Godzilla fan.[citation needed]

What's his actual worse film? I've never got very far with "In the Mouth of Madness" or whatever its called.

Worst film he's been in is "Silence of the Hams", which may actually be the worst film I ever had to sit to the end of, ftb reviewing it.

Carpenter? He's made a lot of shot lately. "Ghosts of Mars?" Never seen "Memoirs of an Invisible Man." I thought "Mouth of Madness" was OK.

Shit, not shot.

carpenter's most recent flick, the ward, is p bad, sadly :-(

his contrib to the portmanteau 'Body Bags' flick is also the weakest segment, imho

b-but i was actually coming here to say that 'In the Mouth of Madness' is his most underrated movie, so...

Village of the Damned is similar to The Fog (sleepy village horror) but I think is a notch better.

Cigarette Burns is totally over-the-top creepy and gruesome.

I think that I quite liked Ghosts of Mars -- on the nothing-Nastassia-does-is-non-excellent principle -- but I actually can't remember much about it: I saw it on TV and probably skipped over to CSI in the middle.

Natasha not Nastassia. My typing is gone to shot today.