ViewGuide

Created Sep 25, 2011 01:09AM PST • Edited Jun 08, 2022 08:06PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   First of all it’s a Kurt Russell movie, always a good thing. Secondly, it’s tremendously assured, crisply created by a master movie craftsman. Last but not least, it portrays a classic grim-trigger game, where a dozen marooned guys have to kill one comrade after another upon determining that the Thing has taken over a body.

   Intense intrigue comes from guessing how many survive the gauntlet. One, two, three, six? None? More than a little gallows humor leavens the toll.

   A horror movie that even non-horror fans can appreciate, The Thing probably deserves the Perfect that Massie and others awarded it. My Great carries a grain of salt, coming as it does from a non-horror fan.

   This Thing is the real thing.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Kurt Russell makes a bitchin’ action star. Solid, capable, decent – he’s a guy you want to get behind even as he evinces no need to lead.

   • Wilford Brimley appears sans the droopy mustache he wore in Cocoon three years later.
   • Keith David gives any cast a dose of serious manliness.
   • Richard Dysart appears here some four years before L.A. Law made him a big TV star.
   • Richard Masur is just an interesting guy, kinda geeky but not a pushover.
   • Donald Moffat has played more than his share of authority figures, here as the camp commander who’s willing to shoot a man when necessary.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

   No actresses, but set to not drag down the acting score.

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    John Carpenter masterfully presents alien action and human intrigue in his Thing.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

    John Carpenter doesn’t waste a shot. A film this assured transcends its horror genre.

12. Play Really Great 4.5

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    The creature itself – The Thing – bears a familial resemblance to the creatures from Alien, mouths appearing all over the place. Early 80s Modern Monster, silly but effective.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 2.9

    There is a monster on the loose, so the violence rating could have gone up to Monstrous but I chose not to because of the grim humor of the goings-on.

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Savage 4.5

19. Rudeness Profane 3.2

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.1

    The circoreality is a bit of a hoot when you consider that the crew of an Antarctic outpost never questions the appearance of the Thing, almost like they expected it to arrive. Glib.

    The supernatural Physio and Bio reality are par for the course, with Conservation of Energy enthusiastically ignored.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.9

23. Biological Supernatural 3.7

24. Physical Supernatural 3.7