BIG'S BIG MOVIE LIST

     To me, the best horror movies are ones that I watch and find myself imagining—really imagining—what it would be like to be in the horrific conditions or situations of the characters. The “Saw” series was especially intriguing to me for this reason. As the methods of torture and mutilation in the movies grew more and more complex I was forced to ask myself what it must feel like to make the inevitable sophies choice of every one of Jigsaw's puzzles, both psychologically and physically. It is a dark curiosity that i think is inherent in most horror fans. This intrigue is not always borne of gore (it certainly doesn't hurt, though), however, as I feel that real top tier horror tests the limits of reality and imagination in the minds of its audience.

 

     John Carpenter, the master of horror and action behind such films as “Village of the Damned” and “Escape from New York”, struck horror gold when he adapted the 1938 John Campbell Jr. novella “Who Goes There?” into the 1982 creature feature “The Thing” (also a remake of the 1950's horror classic “Thing From Another World”).

 

      Set in Antarctica (filmed in Alaska and British Columbia, as well as interior scenes filmed at Universal Studios), “The Thing” follows a group of researchers who experience a bizarre encounter outside their outpost: two Norwegian researchers in a helicopter are tracking and hunting a lone dog. The research team tries to make sense of situation as the dog approaches their research station, but are unable to interpret what the frantic Norwegian brandising a rifle is trying to tell them. In a struggle, the Norwegian inadvertantly blows up his helicopter (and pilot) and gets shot in defense by one of the researchers. The dog is taken in as a stray, but to some of the researchers there is something strange about this seemingly normal animal.

 

 

     A team investigates the neighboring Norwegian camp to find it burned out and left to ruin. Corpses inside appear malformed and gnarled, and the team cannot discern what happened. They do take a body back to their base, and under the scalpel of Doc Blair (Wilford Brimley, who was a real life cowboy and had no issue with handling prop organs), they soon discover that they have been introduced to an alien species--long dormant in the arctic ice—that can kill and shapeshift (in gloriously gruesome fashion) into the form of its prey, forming a perfect copy of any living organism. Realizing this puts the men into a state of fear and paranoia as there is absolutely no way to know who may have been infected (John Carpenter is quoted as saying he still honestly doesnt know who on the team was replicated first by the dog)

 

This film is a near perfect horror classic. It is conceptually scary and visually it is nightmarish and intense (thanks to special effects master Rob Bottin). The story is an examination of paranoia and the minds of men (fun fact: only one person on the cast/crew was female, and she left on maternity leave during production). The overarcing idea of a chameleon that could be hiding in the skin of men you've come to know well makes me shudder just a little bit. When I put myself in the shoes of RJ MacReady (Kurt Russell), I imagine what I would do in such a situation, and in so doing, I know I've found a horror movie I love.

 

     The true bread and butter of the film lies in its various scenes depicting the various transformations and iterations of The Thing, each an elaborate, twisted apparatus covered with foam rubber and slime, and manipulated under the floor by multiple crew members. Aside from a few rubber models that are laughably fake (and on the screen for milliseconds), what you see is terrifying and innovative. Carpenter uses light and shadow judiciously, showing you everything you need and very little you dont, and the score (by famed composer Ennio Morricone) is a tense arrangement of bass and strings that makes an already ominous situation even more nailbiting. I hadn't seen this film for the first time until about 2008 and afterward I was KICKING MYSELF for having not seen it sooner!