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Carpenter is now considered the master of suspense. “Halloween” rather proved that to be true. Michael Myers was scary without running, without speaking, without showing intelligence. But “Halloween” really wasn’t very bloody, and Carpenter seems to be making up for it with “The Thing”. The gore is beyond gruesome and it’s beyond amazing, becoming the sort of thing that grosses us out, but makes us want to see what else will happen. When this alien takes over a body, it’s unknown to everyone because it is a viral type of traveler. And that simple fact, that we never know who will soon become the alien, is what makes the blood fest so surprising.
Kurt Russell leads the team of actors in a study of claustrophobic cabin fever and secluded paranoia. What Carpenter establishes is a great sense of personal wall space. Every character puts himself on the defensive against who once were his friends because they are fighting a force that is only seen when it’s too late. And in that aspect, the walls of their snow station become a character all its own – and one that is quite effective I might add.
What I see in horror films is the same old thing over and over and over. Directors hope that gore by itself will be enough to get a scare or shock out of his audience. That isn’t the case. Blood and gore alone is not truly scary. Elusive blood and gore, however, is mortifying. And that terror is what Carpenter has so horrifically captured.
Rarely do films come to a point that is so sickening and disgusting that I feel like vomiting. And even more rarely does a film project horror effects that are so real that it scares me at all. This film did both simultaneously. This is epic horror filmmaking, and genuinely unsettling suspense. *** ½