Yep, I finally watched "The Greatest Horror Movie of All Time". I haven't seen a film hyped up so much on this sub other than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM) and I had to finally rent it. Here are my thoughts:
The characters were better than I expected. They weren't cardboard cutouts, and by the end I felt like I got a decent sense of these men.
I did think there were some tense moments throughout. I really liked the blood testing scene. The movie was best when the characters were in the same room trying to figure out who was infected.
Where the movie really let me down was The Thing itself. The effects haven't aged well, and struck a balance between unintended comedy and gross factor. It's not that the effects looked bad, it's that they were so impractical. My problem isn't with the gore per-se, it's how the gore fits in with The Thing. It takes one molecule to spread to another host, yet The Thing would rather peacock around whenever people find it out. The fast moving blood from the blood testing scene is scarier than the skin peeling and leg sprouting because the fast moving blood is an actual threat. The gore was so over-the-top and pointless that I was laughing, yet by the end, I was bored of the effects. I understand why critics called Carpenter a sadist after this movie. He really missed the execution on this one.
The beginning was really good. Thumping soundtrack, creepy Norwegian shacks, a strange dog. It's just that some restraint would've been nice. In horror, less is typically better and I really think that would've been the case here.
I went into this film with low expectations after being let down by TCM. I expected cardboard cutout characters and amazing gore effects. But what I got was almost the opposite experience. Real characters and gore that missed the mark. I'm sure The Thing is fun with friends. The story has potential, so I am excited to see The Thing From Another World to see how it holds up with more restraint.
Submitted July 25, 2018 at 10:22AM by korbinkreme https://ift.tt/2LoMDtK