10 Harsh Realities Of Rewatching The Thing, 42 Years Later

John Carpenter’s The Thing is a sci-fi horror masterpiece that still holds up to a rewatch today – but there are a couple of minor flaws that stick out on rewatches. The Thing marked the second big-screen adaptation of John W. Campbell’s chilling 1938 novella Who Goes There? after 1951’s The Thing from Another World, directed by Christian Nyby. Much like the 1951 version, Carpenter’s The Thing takes place at a remote research station that gets infiltrated by a malevolent extraterrestrial force determined to wipe out the entire team.

Like fellow Carpenter classics Halloween, They Live, and Escape from New York, The Thing has stood the test of time. With its tense atmosphere and unconventional whodunit storyline, The Thing is just as bone-chillingly terrifying on a rewatch today as it was on its initial release in 1982. But The Thing isn’t a perfect movie. There’s a reason it received negative reviews when it originally hit theaters. It has a few small flaws that stand out on a rewatch today.

10
The Thing Takes A While To Get Going

The Thing gets off to kind of a slow start

While The Thing is a thrilling watch once it gets going, it gets off to a pretty slow start. The opening scene with the dog’s arrival brings the alien entity into the American research station nice and early. But it takes the scientists a long time to realize that the dog is infected with an intergalactic parasite. It would be one thing if this time was used for ominous foreshadowing or to build out the characters, but it’s more just a typical day in the life of the research scientists.

9
The Thing’s Human Characters Are Underdeveloped Archetypes

There isn’t much character development in The Thing’s cast

Whereas the characters in other horror classics like Alien and The Exorcist are well-rounded, three-dimensional human beings with their own distinctive personalities and motivations, the characters in The Thing are a collection of underdeveloped archetypes. MacReady is a grizzled Vietnam vet, Blair is a paranoid conspiracy theorist, Palmer is a habitual stoner – every character falls into a familiar category. The characters aren’t quite one-dimensional, but there’s nothing that separates them from similar characters in other movies.

8
The Main Appeal Of The Thing Is Rob Bottin’s Special Effects

The special effects upstage the story

The main appeal of The Thing – and the most groundbreaking aspect of the movie – is Rob Bottin’s incredible special effects. Before the invention of CGI, Bottin managed to conjure up monstrous, otherworldly creations with fully practical effects on a relatively slim budget. The Thing’s mind-blowing effects still hold up today, but the film’s storytelling and characterization don’t match the innovation of Bottin’s work. Like fellow 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, The Thing coasts by on its special effects.

7
The Thing Has A Few Boring Stretches Between Its Iconic Set-Pieces

Fans have a tendency to only remember the exciting parts

Memory tends to hold onto the most exciting parts of a movie and leave out the boring parts in between, so the problem with rewatching old movies is rediscovering those boring parts. For the most part, The Thing is so beautifully atmospheric that it doesn’t have a chance to become boring. But there are a couple of stretches in between the movie’s iconic set-pieces that drag the pacing down. The characters do a lot of sitting around and waiting for the alien to rear its head and give itself away.

6
Blair’s Computer Simulation Is A Shortcut To Establish The Stakes

Blair’s computer program tells him exactly how dire the situation is

After the scientists realize their station has been infiltrated by an assimilating alien entity, Blair runs a computer simulation that determines the creature could assimilate the entire human race in a matter of years. It’s just a quick scene, but this computer simulation is a really easy, on-the-nose way to establish the stakes of the story. If the alien gets out, the world is doomed. There must’ve been a subtler way to convey that message than to have a computer literally spell it out for the audience.

5
The Characters’ Dialogue Is Mostly Interchangable

The dialogue serves the plot, but it has very little characterization

The problem with having archetypal, thinly drawn characters that all have a similar personality is that their dialogue is often interchangeable with each other. In the script for Carrie, a Carrie line wouldn’t make sense coming out of Sue’s mouth, or a Chris line wouldn’t make sense coming out of Tommy’s mouth. But in the script for The Thing, a MacReady line could be given to Childs, or a Palmer line could be given to Nauls, and it wouldn’t make much difference.

4
The Thing’s Best Scares Are Derivative Of Alien’s Chestburster

The Thing copies Ridley Scott’s body horror masterclass to slightly less effect

The best scares in The Thing – especially the moment with the defibrillator – are derivative of the best scare in a previous horror masterpiece. With the chestburster scene in Alien, Ridley Scott mastered the blend of gory body horror with a more psychological, existential terror. The Thing has some great scares, but they all copy this combination to slightly less effect – dialing up the existential dread, but also dialing up the gore to a gratuitous level.

3
The Thing Has An Ambiguous (& Depressing) Ending

The Thing doesn’t end on a very upbeat note

At the end of The Thing, MacReady and Childs can’t be sure that neither of them has been assimilated. They recognize the futility of debating it, so they decide to just split a bottle of Scotch whisky and wait to meet their inevitable fate. Even if neither of them has been assimilated, they’ll surely freeze to death in the Antarctic wilderness. This ends the movie on an appropriately disturbing note, but it also leaves the viewer feeling deeply uncomfortable – and it’s annoying for anyone who hates ambiguous endings that are open to interpretation.

2
Some Of The Thing’s Characters Make Frustratingly Stupid Decisions

A few too many characters wander off on their own

It’s common for horror movie characters to make stupid decisions – it’s practically a requirement for the genre – but it can make for a frustrating watch. A few characters in The Thing wander off on their own with a shapeshifting alien on the loose. At least the characters in movies like Cabin Fever and Friday the 13th are supposed to be kids who don’t know any better; the characters in The Thing are supposedly smart. It amplifies the tension among the group as it casts doubt on who is really themselves, but these are supposed to be intelligent research scientists.

1
The Thing Has A Bleak, Cynical Worldview

The Thing’s nihilistic attitude is even more depressing now

The biggest reason why E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial blew The Thing out of the box office water is that E.T. is a sweet, uplifting, optimistic movie and The Thing is a bleak, cynical, nihilistic movie. Whereas E.T. imagines that alien contact could make humanity feel less lonely, The Thing imagines that an alien entity could wipe out humanity within a couple of years, and there’s nothing humanity could do to stop it. That’s not exactly a comforting notion, which makes The Thing a tough rewatch – especially as the world has become an even darker, bleaker place since the film’s release.