The other two films in what Carpenter calls his "Apocalypse Trilogy" are also well worth watching: "Prince of Darkness" and "In the Mouth of Madness". Neither has aged quite so well, but both are good and interesting horror films.
I feel that "Suspiria" and "Don't Look Now" are actually the best horror films ever made, but de gustibus non est disputandum, as they say.
I can not stress enough to the Hacker News community that if you have not seen this movie, go see this movie.
John Carpenter did a really great job with this movie and story. Every scene in this movie plays to the story, there is literally no filler in this movie. Unlike movies today, which are epic 2 hour snoozefests that are chock full of pointless scene after pointless scene which adds nothing to the film or the story line. The Thing starts right off with the story and smoothly transition through it to the very end. Also, The Thing monster in this story is scary as hell too.
I don't think the CG/Post is the issue with making the unknown feel believable. It's entirely the way in which the actors interact with the physical prop, in essence. Something you can't replicate with stand-ins or match moving. Performance capture tends to get it right.
The more monstrous transformations of the thing look horrifying even in well-lit, motionless, on-the-set photos while surrounded by a film crew. That's the result of fantastic creature design. "The Thing" would have been effective whether done in CG or not, but I have to agree that acting out appropriate fear must have been a little bit easier for the cast of "The Thing" thanks to the monster being so vividly realized on the set.
The monster scenes progress smoothly as well. Starting with the dog in the kennel, and leading up to the spider-head. Which still creeps me out to this day.
Sharp knees is generally snark meant to imply that the person being discussed is attractive. Bad web design is a legitimate concern, and is something that is often found in articles linked on HN when designers get a little too experimental.
Yes, but criticising this site's font as being hard to read is a stretch. It's fine. HN will be critical of anything that isn't stock sans-serif in black on white.
It might not be impossible or even difficult to read for you or I, but remember that every OS displays fonts a little differently, indeed some browsers may display differently, and different monitors display a little differently. People could be having a vastly different experience from what you or I have.
There's a reason sans-serif black-on-white is the default, and why people ask for it. It's easy to read no matter what. That's why Readability exists. And for what it's worth, at first glance I find this page difficult to read as well on a 1080p 15" monitor. The font makes me have to focus on one line and one word at a time, where in stock sans serif I can skim. That's what happens when you try to translate text that works fine in a novel and put it on a computer screen. You would never see a newspaper or a textbook printed in this fashion. Because it's harder to read.
> Unlike movies today, which are epic 2 hour snoozefests that are chock full of pointless scene after pointless scene which adds nothing to the film or the story line.
I will admit, while not a horror story, I did have the latest Hobbit movie on my mind. I think I could cut 1/3 from from the latest movie and not impact the story. If anything, probably bring it inline with the book.
The latest Hobbit was a tour de force compared to the second one. What an absolute piece of garbage that was. Talk about milking the book for all it's worth. One 3 hour movie probably would have sufficed to the tell the Hobbit story.
There is also a similarly impressive 'sequel' that came out as a PS2 game; it picked up from the end of the movie, the base reduced to burning wreckage you explored. Worth tracking down if you are a fan of Carpenters' reboot (the original came out in the 50's).
There is also a similarly impressive 'sequel' that came out as a PS2 game; it picked up from the end of the movie, the base reduced to burning wreckage you explored. Worth tracking down if you are a fan of Carpenters' reboot (the original came out in the 50's).
You might be interested to know that "The Thing" was filmed in my hometown[1]. I remember visiting the sets as a kid, seeing the freaky dog models, etc. The local museum still has some of the film props.
And yes, my town gets a lot of snow, typically around five-six metres. The "Antarctic base" in the movie was just a short drive away up a road that led to an old mine site[2]. We used to get rides up there and hike around when we were kids.
I honestly can't think of a single thing they could do to improve this.
This isn't your typical "smart" people doing stupid things. This is a bunch of smart and capable people completely overmatched by something far beyond their understanding.
Its amazing how not having the typical "here, hold my beer" response seen in a huge amount of movies (not just horror) enhances the movie. Ok, knowing what they know, it is a pretty good set of decisions. I do admit to committing one of the horror movie cliches in real life, but I'm not fond of them in my movies.
I absolutely hate movies populated by the smart-stupid-doers. For a low budget example, "Deep Star Six" is basically a comedy because of it.
Unpopular opinion coming through: If you're not easily scared, films made only from scary-stuff-that-isn't-scary are really boring.
I'll give you an example: Alien. Literally all that film is is "they go down to this planet, a spider fucks a guy's face, and then a monster kills everyone." If you're not scared by that stuff, you get nothing out of that film, because there is nothing else that happens. The second one is better, something happens between the characters.
The article was fairly poorly written, I only got one line saying that the movie flopped because it released at the same time as E.T. I assume that jeopardized his career?
> Running dog-Thing has earned its customized bass lurk, composed by Ennio Morricone, which, in fairness to your ears and mine, could be an expensive John Carpenter imitation.
> Carpenter’s Thing, for its part, discouraged the future of dog whispering, if not mankind in general. Running dog-Thing was played by Jed, a half wolf that neither growled nor barked. Richard Masur, who played the station dog handler, remembers how Jed would just give you “that look” when he grew uncomfortable on the set. That Thing look. So watch Jed closely. Watch Jed pad down empty hallways. Jed nosing the door open, looking out of windows. Jed listening to Stevie Wonder.
> In the film, Wilford Brimley’s Dr. Blair supposes this while performing an autopsy on Norwegian Two-faced Thing, his eraser head traveling directly from an astro-parasitic entity to his own bottom lip. A clear violation of Thing health code.
> Rob Bottin, who played the ghost of a vengeful seagoing leper in The Fog, was in charge of special effects for The Thing. ... Bottin would do such a thorough job—literally ending up inside the Thing, for the finale—that he’d check himself into a hospital after the shoot completed.
> Meanwhile, I’m left wondering if the Thing can retain the dream memories of those it absorbs, turning to Freaks and Geeks for answers. For it was the great leveler Millie Kentner who once cried, “Life is not that dog’s dream!”
I was able to follow the author's meaning in parts but it's certainly challenging.
The writer's got voice. Good for him. Now tell me what you plan on saying and then say it. Don't tease me with one thing in a headline and then drag me through ten minutes of reading stream-of-consciousness. E-gads what a mess.
I'm right there with you - I clicked thinking of hearing behind-the-scenes stories about how The Thing was over budget, behind schedule, having technical problems, etc. But instead the article was just a kinda rambling collection of thoughts about the movie (which it is a great movie).
The "collector's edition" (DVD, not sure about BluRay) includes a really wonderful 83-minute documentary, "The Thing: Terror Takes Shape", about the making of the film, along with several other great extras, including a clip of the original ending. Highly recommended. Seems the whole film is on YouTube [1].
Also highly recommended is the site by one of the producers, Stuart Cohen [2]. It's a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes info, photos, rambling gossip and old-fashioned war stories from the set.
Misleading HN title. The actual title of the article is 'Dismembrance of the Thing’s Past'. Don't know where OP got the 'nearly sabotaged' career part.
The video game, incidentally, is the official sequel to the film. If you saw the movie and loved it and want to know what happened next, there's yer chance.
Yeah, I had it on PS2 and it was fantastic. Challenging, scary, and fun to play. I'm afraid to go back and look again though, because IMO very few games from that time period actually hold up these days. What's the opposite of the uncanny valley, where you can understand what the thing is supposed to represent, but you have a hard time actually seeing it that way? Things were simpler back then, and once you've been spoiled its hard to go back.
When I first played it, it really felt cheesy as hell but I recently revisited it on my PS2 and I love it. There's only a handful of great movie/game transitions and I like to think that's one of them (the Riddick games being the others on that short list). I really wish we had another horror game with the same gameplay elements.
"Shortly after the last plane leaves, the winter-overs gather in the main dining room, the Galley, for a showing of the science fiction movie "The Thing," about an alien that attacks researchers in an isolated Antarctic base. "
The winter personnel are physically isolated from the rest of the world between mid-February and late October.
Very poor article. I think I understand what the author was going for, but I expected much better from The Paris Review.
Fans looking for more behind the scenes stuff about the movie should check out "The Thing: Terror Takes Shape", about the making of the film, with much of the cast and principal crew included. The whole film is on YouTube [1], and also on several releases of the movie.
Also highly recommended is the site by one of the producers, Stuart Cohen [2]. It's a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes info, photos, rambling gossip and old-fashioned war stories from the set.
63 comments
[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 112 ms ] threadAnyone who has access to the DVD/ Blu Ray should also check out the commentary track with John Carpenter and Kurt Russel. It is great.
I feel that "Suspiria" and "Don't Look Now" are actually the best horror films ever made, but de gustibus non est disputandum, as they say.
And yet the monster scenes don't overshadow the human drama, the continuous buildup, the claustrophobia you feel from there being no escape.
The Thing is such a great movie, and definitely my favourite horror movie.
It's how a horror movie should be made.
There's a reason sans-serif black-on-white is the default, and why people ask for it. It's easy to read no matter what. That's why Readability exists. And for what it's worth, at first glance I find this page difficult to read as well on a 1080p 15" monitor. The font makes me have to focus on one line and one word at a time, where in stock sans serif I can skim. That's what happens when you try to translate text that works fine in a novel and put it on a computer screen. You would never see a newspaper or a textbook printed in this fashion. Because it's harder to read.
http://www.readability.com/m?url=http://www.theparisreview.o...
Someone sounds a little jaded.
I will admit, while not a horror story, I did have the latest Hobbit movie on my mind. I think I could cut 1/3 from from the latest movie and not impact the story. If anything, probably bring it inline with the book.
“Platforms: PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_%28video_game%29
And yes, my town gets a lot of snow, typically around five-six metres. The "Antarctic base" in the movie was just a short drive away up a road that led to an old mine site[2]. We used to get rides up there and hike around when we were kids.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart,_British_Columbia
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granduc_Mine
This isn't your typical "smart" people doing stupid things. This is a bunch of smart and capable people completely overmatched by something far beyond their understanding.
It's darn near a perfect movie.
I absolutely hate movies populated by the smart-stupid-doers. For a low budget example, "Deep Star Six" is basically a comedy because of it.
I'll give you an example: Alien. Literally all that film is is "they go down to this planet, a spider fucks a guy's face, and then a monster kills everyone." If you're not scared by that stuff, you get nothing out of that film, because there is nothing else that happens. The second one is better, something happens between the characters.
And yeah, I feel this way about The Thing.
> Carpenter’s Thing, for its part, discouraged the future of dog whispering, if not mankind in general. Running dog-Thing was played by Jed, a half wolf that neither growled nor barked. Richard Masur, who played the station dog handler, remembers how Jed would just give you “that look” when he grew uncomfortable on the set. That Thing look. So watch Jed closely. Watch Jed pad down empty hallways. Jed nosing the door open, looking out of windows. Jed listening to Stevie Wonder.
> In the film, Wilford Brimley’s Dr. Blair supposes this while performing an autopsy on Norwegian Two-faced Thing, his eraser head traveling directly from an astro-parasitic entity to his own bottom lip. A clear violation of Thing health code.
> Rob Bottin, who played the ghost of a vengeful seagoing leper in The Fog, was in charge of special effects for The Thing. ... Bottin would do such a thorough job—literally ending up inside the Thing, for the finale—that he’d check himself into a hospital after the shoot completed.
> Meanwhile, I’m left wondering if the Thing can retain the dream memories of those it absorbs, turning to Freaks and Geeks for answers. For it was the great leveler Millie Kentner who once cried, “Life is not that dog’s dream!”
I was able to follow the author's meaning in parts but it's certainly challenging.
The writer's got voice. Good for him. Now tell me what you plan on saying and then say it. Don't tease me with one thing in a headline and then drag me through ten minutes of reading stream-of-consciousness. E-gads what a mess.
http://howtowreckanicebeach.com/?page_id=16
"a former columnist for The Wire, writes frequently about hip-hop and popular music."
And I don't have the wish to compare his other writing with this.
Also highly recommended is the site by one of the producers, Stuart Cohen [2]. It's a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes info, photos, rambling gossip and old-fashioned war stories from the set.
[1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=B48Yp00LitE
[2] http://theoriginalfan.blogspot.com
Submitters: it's against the rules to rewrite titles, except when the original is misleading or linkbait.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
(Submitted title was "“The Thing” – The film that nearly sabotaged John Carpenter’s career". We changed it to the doc title.)
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/04.13/01-winterover.htm...
"Shortly after the last plane leaves, the winter-overs gather in the main dining room, the Galley, for a showing of the science fiction movie "The Thing," about an alien that attacks researchers in an isolated Antarctic base. "
The winter personnel are physically isolated from the rest of the world between mid-February and late October.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%E2%80%93Scott_South_Po...
[0] http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/
So far no one here has mentioned that the whole "thing" is based on the John W Campbell story "Who Goes There": http://www.scaryforkids.com/who-goes-there-by-john-w-campbel...
Carpenter's movie is great in part because it's so true to the source material.
http://theoriginalfan.blogspot.com/
Fans looking for more behind the scenes stuff about the movie should check out "The Thing: Terror Takes Shape", about the making of the film, with much of the cast and principal crew included. The whole film is on YouTube [1], and also on several releases of the movie.
Also highly recommended is the site by one of the producers, Stuart Cohen [2]. It's a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes info, photos, rambling gossip and old-fashioned war stories from the set.
[1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=B48Yp00LitE
[2] http://theoriginalfan.blogspot.com