The Thing (2011)

Nice little slice of nostalgia.

It's not human.Yet

I am a huge fan of the 1982 version which came out in 1982 so when I heard they was bringing out a prequel I was over the moon.

The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Palaeontologist (which means she deals with fossils and dead shit I think)  and she is recruited to unearth a fossil that has been buried in the ice in Antarctica for quite sometime. Just like the original shit starts to go wrong and it’s not long before people start splitting open and blood starts going up the walls and out people’s eyes.

Is there something wrong with my face?

There are certainly some unsettling scenes in the film but that is what you come to expect in a film like this. Just to let people know this is a PREQUEL not a remake so if you go into the film with an expectation of “it better not fail the old one” then you’re going to be disappointed, also if you go with the expectation that “its going to be better than the old one” again you’re going to be disappointed because it does not come close to John Carpenters’ classic.

The film does work really well and that is what makes it good, it answers so many questions from the original that it blends in perfectly. Even if you haven’t seen John Carpenters’ The Thing then you don’t need to, to understand this one, it is a very good stand alone film.

There are some scenes that you can tell are blatant CGI but in others its looks really good. I would recommend this to anyone who likes alien films to be honest. There is a part of the film that is worth waiting for because it is during the credits and it blends both films in really well. Another plus to the film is that the original sound track is used but with a modern twist which is really good when you’re sitting in your chair recognising what you are hearing.

The same paranoia from the original isn’t quite the same in this one because you know what is going to happen at some points but it’s still there but not quite as much but I blame that on the trailer personally. The whole experiment on how to determine who’s The Thing in this one isn’t as well thought out as the original, which is fair enough considering the original done it so well.

The iconic blood test from the original. Not quite the same in the new one I must say.

The way they determine who is The Thing in the new one is checking for metal fillings in teeth because the alien can’t replicate metal or some shit, it’s good but not that good if you get my drift. The film is pretty good and the director certainly done his homework to make the sets exactly as they were in the original, which is a good idea in my book because there is to many directors now days who do a half arsed job at trying to blend films together.

Go see this film if you want to know what happened before the John Carpenter classic or if you are looking for a good little alien film full of fucked up transformation scenes and blood splatter.

Review:  4/5 The best prequel I have seen that ties up every loose end shown in an original film. Just go see it. Not as good as the original but the bar was set so high that it was hard to beat anyway.

Stay beautiful.