'THE THING'.....HAPPY 40TH TO A FILM ONCE REVILED.....AND NOW CELEBRATED.

 The Thing (1982)   Few, if any films released 40 years ago endured a trajectory like this one......

               It arrived in the middle of a summer when the whole world fell in love with Steven Spielberg's stubby, scaly, ugly little visiting alien....E.T. 

                John Carpenter's take-no-prisoners, astoundingly gory brutal remake of the legendary1951 film also featured an alien visitor.........and surprise, surprise......nobody fell in love with The Thing.

                 Film critics sputtered their outrage and utter disgust. Adjectives like 'repulsive', 'nauseating', 'reprehensible'  were freely flung at the film.  They despised and wailed over the groundbreaking levels of carnage and the dispiriting, nihilistic climax.

                  While "E.T." played to sold out screenings at theaters nationwide, "The Thing" played to audiences of......maybe one or two people on a good night. 

                 We do not exaggerate here. Because we were among those one or two people who went to see "The Thing" that summer. 

                   And we stand proud to tell you of our initial reaction to it.  The film blew us away. We couldn't believe the sheer audacity of it......a major film from a major studio that came out unafraid to take its audience on a non-stop trip into hell from beginning to end. 

                   Unlike the critics of the time, we knew we were watching something unique, something never attempted on multiple levels.......40 years later, in the summer of 2022, our opinion of "The Thing" hasn't changed from the first day we laid eyes on it. 

                   We thought we'd seen an instant classic way back then......and through all the decades of watching it over and over again, it's remains an instant classic, a film we will never tire of re-visiting.

                 And look what happened. All it took was this 40 year passage of time for the rest of the world\to finally see the film as the stunning piece of work it always was. 

                We can only breathe a sigh and mutter under our breath...."well, it's about effin' time."

              Let's now salute the truly gifted team that put "The Thing" together.

              Director John Carpenter.......who excelled in his ability to tell a story so brimming with fear, loathing and suspense, you'd feel forced to view it scrunched under your seat.

               Screenwriter Bill Lancaster, who went back to the original gut-wrenching premise of John W. Campbell Jr.'s classic short story "Who Goes There?"....(which the 1951 film could never hope to attempt with the primitive special effects of that era).  Instead of the James Arness alien Frankenstein of the older film, Carpenter and Lancaster's 'Thing' was a nightmarish, parasitic shapeshifter who could perfectly duplicate and mimic the humans it slaughtered..........which brings us to the next key collaborator....

               Creature effects creator Rob Bottin.......who, a whole decade before the onslaught of CGI and digital effects, brought to life, in full view of the actors, the most horrifying monster transformations ever seen at the time. (And they still hold the power to shock today....)

               The maestro himself, Ennio Morricone, who cleverly composed a subtle, ominous score that  sounded like Carpenter's own minimalist music for his previous films, yet still maintained the distinctive Morricone identity.  From the first minute on, this score announced your hellscape destination. 

                Dean Cundey's cinematography which precisely captured the darkest moods, even in bright snow, Todd Ramsay's editing, who boldly resurrected  archaic "fade to black" scene transitions to accentuate the dread and matte genius Albert Whitlock's meticulous artwork in depicting staggering sights like the 'Thing's' long frozen saucer. 

                 And finally, Kurt Russell and the rest of the film's unforgettable all-male ensemble cast.....each of them creating a flawed individual pushed to his very limits.  Every single one of them deserves mention here - Keith David, Wilford Brimley, David Clennon, T.K. Carter, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Mahoney, Thomas Waites, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis.

                It's nice to know that 4 decades after the summer of '82, "The Thing" stands along side "E.T." as just as much of an eternal classic. But our assessment never changed......then and now, the film remains a 5 star (*****) FIND OF FINDS.