What’s on the menu for tonight? A monster movie à la 80s with a dash of aliens and a side of intrigue. Sounds delicious. In fact, it’s just what the doctor ordered. It’s “The Thing.”
First time director Matthijis van Heijningen Jr. takes a very workmanlike approach to the classic film. He uses the tropes and techniques that have worked for horror movies in the past and doesn’t try to do anything new or change up the genre. It will probably be criticized for its lack of originality and for not bringing anything new to the genre or to the classic John Carpenter story, but that is part of it’s appeal. Despite being nothing new, it is still a solid film that follows wonderfully from its predecessors.
The Thing traces all the tracks of the classic monster movie so the specifics should be well known to anyone who has watched a similar flick. There is the obligatory female lead that takes charge for no particular reason. Then there is the alien monster that, despite not being able to walk without crashing through a wall, has advanced technology and wants to kill everything for no particular reason. The film’s abundant plot holes are even redeeming; proving the campiness and nostalgia value of any cheap 80s monster flick.
One word that can truly describe The Thing 2011 is “classic.” It is a prequel of a remake of an adaptation of the 1938 horror sci-fi novel Who Goes There by John W. Campbell, Jr. It is a well-honed story that keeps coming back approximately every 20 years without much change. It is also “classic” in its style, following much in the footsteps of monster movies of the 80s and 90s than the more recent torture-porn that has been dominant in the horror genre.
It is a relief and a pleasure seeing this return to the cheap thrills and intriguing creatures of classic horror flicks. It’s relaxing not being subjected to two painful hours of watching someone being tortured. I wish more films like this were being made. Having grown up with monster horror, I cherish the genre and detest that it hasn’t been getting much love recently.
Now “The Thing” isn’t an amazing film. It’s not going to win any awards, it’s not going to keep you on the edge of your seat the entire move, or even make you work hard to find the flaws in its plot. But it is solidly made. You will jump a few times, you will laugh and you will have fun. And at the end of the day that’s all the film needs to be.
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