In 1982, American audiences wanted only one alien. He wasn’t the shape-shifting evil alien in John Carpenter’s The Thing; he was the cute alien who wanted to ‘phone home’ in Steven Spielberg’s E.T.

A dog who is being shot at by the crew of a helicopter flying overhead is taken in by an American compound of researchers situated in Antarctica. When the helicopter is accidentally blown up by one of the men aboard, the crew try to find out why. But then the dog, who is now in the same pound as the camp’s own dogs, starts to act strangely. And then things start to change very rapidly indeed!

There’s a lot to love about The Thing. Rob Bottin’s bar-raising special effects, the perfect casting of the all-male cast (unthinkable nowadays with the current emphasis on ‘diversity’, whether it’s necessary or not), the frozen, isolated locale, the colour palette that complements this setting perfectly.

Ennio Morricone’s score is as intricate, complex and multi-layered as the rest of the movie.

The film is also able to be read in a number of different ways. It can be seen as a study of masculinity and also as a metaphor for a new disease being reported about called AIDS. The movie also doesn’t definitively answer vital questions, but leaves it up to the audience to decide for themselves. Questions like who might be human and who might be an alien at the end of the movie. A film that grants the audience with a modicum of intelligence, another reason to love The Thing.

The Thing tanked at the box office. But it then found its audience when it was released on home video. Hooray for video!

The film has aged so well that it’s indicative of a director at the height of his powers and is up there with Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween and The Fog.

5 out of 5 stars