Let’s Have A Sequel to “The Thing”

by Chris Vegvary

One of my favorite sci-fi/horror movies of all time is John Carpenter’s The Thing, a 1982 remake of the film The Thing from Another World, as well as an adaptation of the novella Who Goes There?, is one of the modern-day classics. A group of American scientists at an Antarctic outpost are happened upon by a husky dog that is being shot at by men from a helicopter. The helicopter lands and the scientists are unable to understand the attackers’ attempts to communicate because they speak Norwegian, and in trying to shoot the dog, one of the Americans is hit, which causes the officer in charge to return fire, killing one of the Norwegians after the other accidentally blows himself up with a grenade.

What the Americans don’t realize is that the dog is actually a shape-shifting alien creature in disguise, and we’re not talking a cute little E.T. type of creature here. This Thing can alter its form to have any part of its “body” become any part of any organic creature it has absorbed in the past, whether human, alien, or other; this includes clawed tentacles, spontaneously sprouting spider or crab legs, and in one extreme example, a “flower” of dog tongues with sharp teeth protruding from the “petals”. Really sick, classic special effects, where nothing was CGI…except maybe one brief shot towards the end of the film.

In 2011, a prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing (the 2011 film being simply titled, The Thing) was released, and it explained the events that took place at the Norwegian camp that caused the two scientists in the helicopter to follow the dog all the way to the American camp. While it was a brilliant idea, as I’ve always wanted to know what happened there when they went to investigate the Norwegian camp in the 1982 film, it was kind of poorly executed. I remember hearing that they were only using practical effects like the ones seen in John Carpenter’s 1982 version, and I’ve seen what some of that version looks like, but unfortunately, someone went back through all the special effects and turn it into a CGI nightmare. When the CGI is so prevalent that it completely takes you out of the movie, maybe you should scale way the hell back on it.

What some folks don’t know is that there was a sequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing released in 2002 in the form of a video game. The plot features you as Captain Blake, part of a team of soldiers sent to investigate the American camp after the events of the first film. It has some pretty cool gameplay mechanics, and trust is an important issue in the game. For instance, you have soldiers under your command at some points throughout the game, and they may not fully trust you until you prove to them that you’re not a Thing. If they get too freaked out, they may either try to hurt you or another team member, or they may decide it’s all too much and blow their own head off. Blood test kits can reveal to your teammates that you are not a Thing, or it can reveal that THEY are, in fact, a Thing.

It was a good game, but some of the plot didn’t match up with what happened in John Carpenter’s The Thing. Good effort, but let’s see something like that in movie form. Less CGI, more old-school, practical effects using rubber, slime, and carbopole (which I believe is the stuff used to hold Twinkies together). Just let us have this one thing (heh), Hollywood. 2011’s The Thing was fine, but I need more than that, and this time, when you promise you’re going to use practical effects, I expect you to follow through on that. No more CGI touch-ups.