30 in 30: A MONTH OF HORROR. THE THING
DAY 1
THE THING (1982)
John Carpenter is a master of the genre, nothing new here. In this film, he creates a monster comparable only with those of Lovecraftian origin. A shapeshifting murder machine… that’s coming for you.
Why is this film scary?
There are two ideas at work here that make this movie particularly stressing. The first one is fairly obvious, right? I’m talking about the creature.
A creature that can turn into anyone or anything is inherently scary. Trust goes out the window. You can’t believe your eyes or your ears. Your best friend could really be a deadly mimic lusting for your flesh. The characters are from that point on trapped in a cycle of (understandable) paranoia. The creature has no defined shape or form. Only a vague biological canvas on which to paint nightmares made out of flesh.
This creatures is a parasite that hijacks empathy.
The second thing that makes this movie particularly scary is the setting. The isolated nature of the research facility which makes the story feel alarmingly claustrophobic. There’s nowhere to run, either you die at the hands of the creature or you die at the hands of the frozen tundra.
Being trapped with a monster, around people you can’t trust might just be one of the most unnerving things there are.
The concept of the movie is fantastic but is not the only thing that makes it work. Analyzing THE THING and leaving out the technical aspects of the film is almost an insult, so I’m going to go briefly into them.
It’s evident that this film was made before the golden age of CGI, which is fantastic. The bodies and designs of the creatures feel like they have weight to them, they look like they are part of the reality that’s being portrayed. The interaction between the characters and the creature looks and feels organic. Fluids come out of it. It bloats, floats and explodes, all of it done practically.
Is hard to appreciate practical effects without diminishing CGI, but in horror films, this is almost always the case. Do you remember when CGI blood was a thing in back the early 2000's? Thankfully we’re past that.
Besides the practical effects, I want to quickly highlight the incredible music that Ennio Morricone composed for the film. The simplicity of the compositions mirrors the absolute loneliness of the characters trapped in the research facility. The music impregnates the atmosphere of the story with a sense of stillness and fright that only a master of the craft like Morricone can accomplish, but not only that, the music can also explode into a cacophony of sound when the movie really kicks into high gear.
Wait, but am I not forgetting something?
I save the best for last, the reason why this film is truly horrifying is the question that comes a few minutes after the credits of the movie play. A question that has hunted man since he looked up at the night sky.
Are we alone or not?
THE THING answers this question. It says we are not alone, but we are going to wish we were.
Encompassing this film is the feeling that if these people don’t destroy this strange other-worldly infection, then the rest of humanity will quickly follow. But at the end we don’t get a clear answer. The dread of extinction looms over the audience as the credits play.
This film is scary because it makes us feel isolated, paranoid and overall… fragile.
After all:
“Man is the warmest place to hide.”
Tomorrow: PONTYPOOL (2008)
