This is the third time this story has been brought to the screen. The first time was in 1952 and then in 1982 with John Carpenter's classic "The Thing." Rather than taking the route of reboot or remake, this film is a straight-up prequel. It is the "How did they get there?" to Carpenter's "The Thing." This film is a prequel that suffers from familiar plot devices and scare tactics that have been over-played.
This version of "The Thing" opens up two days prior to the events in Carpenter's film. It shows a team of explorers in Antarctica following a strange signal they picked up on. The signal leads them to a patch of ice that breaks, and they fall into a massive cave. What they find there is an impressive structure, and the discovery of a creature frozen in the ice. That leads project over-seer Dr. Sander Halvorson, played by Ulrich Thomsen, to recruit the talents of young paleontologist Kate Lloyd, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
When Kate and a team of others arrive in Antarctica, they find out that they have a very limited time to unearth what has been found. Once they bring the creature up from the ice and take a tissue sample, they discover that it is indeed alien. With a clear scientific (and financial) victory in hand, the team celebrates that night. And that is when everything goes haywire.
The whole premise behind this alien is that it can mimic organic life. In other words, it can take on and become a human life form. Adding to that scary concept is the vastness and isolation of Antarctica. Those are two elements that made the 1982 film really effective. Here, they are mentioned, but hardly play a role at all. It never feels like the crew is really trapped or isolated. Most of the scares in the film come from "jump" or "boo" scares. Those can only be but so effective in bulk. As a result, the acting and character development take a back seat to the violence and visual effects.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead does a decent job as the leading lady. She has one particularly effective scene where she and the team are trying to discover who is human in the group. More of those kinds of paranoid exchanges would have made this a much stronger film. The rest of the cast is hit and miss with most of them delivering reactionary lines in a very stiff manner.
The visual effects are also not terribly effective. The computer effects often look cheesy and fake. Compared to today's standards, they really look subpar. On the other hand, some of the practical effects are gut-wrenching and look very real. There is one scene in particular where they are dissecting the creature that will turn over some weak stomachs. Despite the inconsistency of the effects, the overall look and feel of the film is pretty chilling. The filmmakers succeeded in making it look like the 1982 Carpenter classic.
Overall, this is a film that was clearly made for the fans. It is a prequel with direct tie-ins to the previous film. It is effective in parts, but because of the familiarity of the plot and its scare tactics, it is not the film it was probably meant to seem. As a straight-up horror film, it is incredibly inconsistent. Fans who love the previous incarnations of "The Thing" will probably want to see this in theaters. For the rest of the audience, this is a good one to rent on a Sunday.
Rating:2.5/5
