The Thing

Imagine, if you will, you are in the Arctic - doing Arctic things - when all of a sudden, a helicopter filled with two Norwegian dudes and a crate of grenades fly into your remote camp chasing a sled dog. Now, imagine that one of the guys has butterfingers and fumbles a grenade into the snow near the helicopter and blows up the chopper and the pilot. Now, imagine that this Norwegian dude screams some non-American gibberish and then shoots one of your friends in the knee before being killed by your boss?  Now imagine that the dog ends up being a shapeshifting creature who begins stealing your friend’s likenesses and killing them in horrible and grotesque ways.

Well, assuming you held onto any of that, you have just imagined the opening of John Carpenter’s The Thing. Released in 1982 to horrified audiences everywhere this film stars Kurt Russell, Keith David, and Wilford Brimley’s mustache, as part of the research team attempting to survive and outsmart a bloodthirsty creature who can copy any animal it wants. Made for $15 million, 10% of which was spent on monster master Rob Bottin’s creature effects, this movie brought home just over $19 million at the box office and a whole lot of negative reviews - including a proposal to name it as the most-hated film of all time. However, once it hit home video and TV this movie became a classic and has since become a favourite of horror and sci-fi buffs. But, does it hold up?  Listen in as Jon, Colin, and Brent try to determine if this flick is a staple in the genre of horror movies, or if they have their body’s taken over by the thing and they are made to think that this flick is a staple in the genre of horror movies.