{"id":9937,"date":"2010-11-23T19:13:49","date_gmt":"2010-11-23T19:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=9937"},"modified":"2010-11-23T19:13:49","modified_gmt":"2010-11-23T19:13:49","slug":"the-making-of-the-thing-john-carpenter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2010\/11\/23\/the-making-of-the-thing-john-carpenter\/","title":{"rendered":"The Making of The Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With a prequel<\/a> to John Carpenter’s The Thing<\/a><\/strong> in the works, a 1982 making-of documentary is a reminder of the raw terror of the original.<\/p>\n

Although critically reviled<\/a> and a box office flop<\/a> when it first came out, the film still endures as one of the best sci-fi horrorsof the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Carpenter’s direction, Rob Bottin<\/a>‘s special effects make up, the ensemble performances, Dean Cundey<\/a>‘s visuals and Ennio Morricone<\/a>‘s chilling score<\/a> are just some of the elements that combine brilliantly.<\/p>\n

This making of video from the time depicts the gruelling shoot in British Columbia:<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

The negative reactions when it first opened were unfortunate, but also part of the reason why the film has endured over the years: unlike a lot of horror films, it is genuinely horrifying<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The central premise of scientists coming across an alien in the Artic was adapted from both the 1951 film The Thing from Another World<\/a>, and the novella Who Goes There?<\/a> by John W. Campbell, Jr. which inspired it.<\/p>\n

But Carpenter goes much further, turning the Cold War<\/a> fears of the original into something darker and more primal.<\/p>\n

Not only is the\u00a0Arctic\u00a0setting claustrophobic and lonely, it plays on the paranoia of a group confronted by something they cannot comprehend.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

This is also true of the audience as try to get a grip on what the Thing actually is.<\/p>\n

Most aliens and monsters are vaguely humanoid but the Thing is such an uniquely revolting villain precisely because it is genuinely ‘other’.<\/p>\n

As a shape-shifting parasite it is also doubly unnerving as it can be anyone at any time.<\/p>\n

After watching it – yes, this is a spoiler warning – check out this IMDb FAQ<\/a> and you will see some tantalising ambiguities in the story (my favourite being ‘Was Blair assimilated<\/a>?’) which add to the mysteries on screen.<\/p>\n

Back in 2008 Carpenter did a video introduction before a 70mm screening of the film in Bradford and described his approach to the film and why it upset people at the time.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

It is rare that films flop because they are too\u00a0successful\u00a0at what they do, but The Thing is one of them.<\/p>\n

> The Thing<\/a> at the IMDb
\n> Outpost 31<\/a> – A\u00a0fan site\u00a0for The Thing
\n> Buy The Thing on Blu-ray<\/a> or DVD<\/a> at Amazon UK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing in the works, a 1982 making-of documentary is a reminder of the raw terror of the original.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[620,481],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9937"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}