The Thing Review (2011)

Saturday 5th November 2011 The Thing - Prequel to John Carpenters The Thing - receives it UK premier at the 25th Leeds International Film Festival, I was lucky enough to be in attendance

I have had a love - hate relationship with this film right from the very start. My initial thought was "Why?" John Carpenters The Thing is very close to being a perfect film, why do we need to mess with perfection? The answer - well one of the main factors - It will make money. John Carpenters The Thing is a hugely successful and popular film so the new Thing already has a fan base.

After I had accepted the fact a new film was going to be released, I thought its obviously going to go one of two ways. It has the potential to be a brilliant prequel to a brilliant film OR it will be horrible, it will ruin the original film. Which one was it? Well a little bit of both.

The film starts with vast and beautiful shots of an icy and snowy landscape. After three Norwegians tell a dirty joke and fall down a crack in the ice we see the name of the film, looking like it is ripping through the screen in the same fashion that it does in the original. Music closely resembling the original chilling score is playing over the top.

We are introduced to too many different characters all at once and we don't get enough time to relate to them all, meaning if they die (Which they probably do, as all but 2 live) we don't really care because we have not spent enough time with them. Then they find the ship which is a real alien space ship, its big and metal and shiny! But it looks terrible. Then comes the only real "jumpy" bit of the film. The alien breaks free. Then the rest of the film is the group searching the camp for the shape shifting creature which they find then lose again then they find it again but then they lose it.

I wont tell you what happens at the end but the scene at the start of the John Carpenter version, with the helicopter chasing the dog? Yeah thats intercut with the credits which is a massive mistake. I don't want to see the helicopter land, then the directors name, then the pilot get out and then the producers names and so on... It feels like the crew forgot thats how it has to end so they filmed it separately and just put it at the end and the dog that runs off and into the Carpenter film... that disappears throughout the whole film, we don't hear it and we don't see it until the end. Its sort of like when your telling a murder story and you introduce a character at the last minute and then everybody gets angry with you for not talking about that character throughout the story, thats how I felt about the dog.

The CGI looked awful and I much prefer the Carpenter effects, the alien somehow looked disturbing but not scary, if thats possible.

This is an average film that had the potential to be brilliant. If you are a fan of Carpenters version I would recommend watching this version but if you have never seen The Thing watch the original and avoid this version as it is basically the same film just with different characters.

The Thing 2/5