In the year 1982 a movie named ”The Thing” was released. The Thing is a horror/scifi- movie from the freezing Antarctic. It tells the story of 12 men stranded in an isolated science station. The film was directed by John Carpenter. The writer of the original story which the movie is based on is John W. Campbell Jr. and the screenplay adjustment was made by Bill Lancaster. The most notable actor in the film is Kurt Russell who also stars the film.

Camerawork in the film is marvelous. There’s a simple indicator of this: At no point in the movie you take note of it. After all the purpose of cameras is to take you into the film’s world and show the characters perspectives. It’s smooth and helps build tension in long still scenes.

Plot-wise the movies shines. Horror films have a tendency to be boring and not that scary at least from a personal perspective. The Thing doesn’t scare you right of the bat either but the idea of the film is very scary: The monster could be any one of us, even a person you know closely. How can you trust anyone? The sci-fi plot is simple enough and easy to follow and understand. The plot avoids the mistake of explaining everything too elaborately so you won’t get caught criticizing the scientific explanation behind it. Instead you focus on the plot itself. The beginning is rather slow but the movie starts building tension slowly from the very beginning and you will get grasped by the plot from the beginning till the very end by plot twists and characters. The characters in the movie all have a certain role which you can expect in a scientific research center in the middle of the Antarctic. They all have their own personalities but the movie doesn’t delve into them and they stay a bit shallow, except for the main character. Kurt Russell does a good job acting the personality of the main character during moments of fear and chaos.

From the audiovisual perspective it’s everything you can expect from an 80s film. The enhanced version looks sharp and good even from an HD television or display. Animating technology was still in it’s baby steps in the 80s so you can expect some scenes to look rather ”raw” from a modern day perspective. The soundtrack is very good for a horror film and helps build up the tension especially in the beginning of the film. Sound effects are good but are nothing shocking. The alien sounds effects are kinda odd but maybe that’s the point of them. They are ”alien” sound effects after all. All the sounds from the real world counterparts sound realistic like the flamethrowers and helicopters. The sound of the desolate Antarctic is also great with wind blowing the whole time outside. The constant snowing and big piles of snow covering the buildings also create a great impression of the icy Antarctic.

Overall the film is solid on all fronts from the music to the plot. The movie still holds it’s charm even though it was made 30 years ago. It’s said to be one of the best horror films of all time and has influenced modern day horror and sci-fi genres by a lot. A prequel of the film was made in 2011 telling the story of the alien’s origin but it failed to keep up to the high standards left by the original.