If we've got any surprises for each other, I don't think either one of us is in much shape to... Holy crap! Tentacle attack!

September 20, 2011 5:21 PM

From the start of Bill Lancaster writing the original script to the final edited cut of the film, The Thing underwent some serious changes. A lot of footage ended up littering the cutting room floor. The Collector's Edition DVD gives us a look at some of the Outtakes and Deleted Scenes, but it falls shy of showing us what really was cut. - Deleted Scenes from The Thing and other assorted goodies at Outpost 31.

There is also a prequel of some kind.
posted by Artw (38 comments total)

Also there is a PS2 game version that attempts to function as a sequel.
posted by hermitosis at 5:25 PM on September 20, 2011

That The Thing game from a few years back was actually pretty sweet.
posted by tumid dahlia at 5:30 PM on September 20, 2011 [5 favorites]

Yay, The Thing! Yay, Artw!
posted by brundlefly at 5:51 PM on September 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

/lurches out of shadows, assimilates Brundlefly, re-lurks.
posted by Artw at 5:52 PM on September 20, 2011 [10 favorites]

>CELL ARTW
>CELL BRUNDLEFLY
>ASSIMILATION COMPLETE
>CELL
>BRUNDLEFLY
>IMITATION
posted by nathancaswell at 6:20 PM on September 20, 2011 [10 favorites]

Brundlefly vs. The Thing is a schlocky horror movie I want to see.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 6:26 PM on September 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

The Thing is such a great film. Watching it recently (the remastered version that just came out), it very much stands up even 20 years later. There isn't too much 1980's wash over the movie that ruins it, as you can imagine a bunch of people stuck in Antarctica with old technology. The only thing that really stands out are the special effects, but only because they are not CG; the special effects are still pretty good by today's standards, in my opinion.

Interestingly enough, if you watch enough contemporary Korean and Japanese grisly monster movies, you'll notice that a lot of the monstrosities actually try to look like the old school special effects in The Thing rather than the video game stuff we mostly see in horror flicks these days, even if the monsters are made with CG.
posted by jabberjaw at 7:06 PM on September 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

The game is good, but I found myself wishing Kurt Russell's feathered hairdo was a playable character.
I watch The Thing every time I'm snowed in.
posted by Lemmy Caution at 7:17 PM on September 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Kevan Davis has made a playing card game and a live action game based on The Thing. I've tried the card game with about four different groups. It doesn't quite work but it has potential, and the paranoia is palpable.

Actually, Kevan almost seems like he'd be a member here.
posted by michaelh at 7:20 PM on September 20, 2011

jabberjaw: "Interestingly enough, if you watch enough contemporary Korean and Japanese grisly monster movies, you'll notice that a lot of the monstrosities actually try to look like the old school special effects in The Thing rather than the video game stuff we mostly see in horror flicks these days, even if the monsters are made with CG."

This does sound interesting, any recommendations?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:29 PM on September 20, 2011

I remember the monster in The Host as being pretty great.
posted by St. Sorryass at 8:01 PM on September 20, 2011

Love The Thing. My favorite viewing was in a film class where the professor kept stopping it every few minutes to explain the various techniques and shot setups and whatnot and people still kept jumping out of their chairs and shrieking for some of the scares.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 8:41 PM on September 20, 2011

The only thing that really stands out are the special effects, but only because they are not CG; the special effects are still pretty good by today's standards, in my opinion.

The old school SFX look waaaay better than the stuff in the prequel.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:24 PM on September 20, 2011

And may we — as well as John Carpenter in this TCM featurette (with trailer and additional clips) — also pay homage to the 1951 film version, The Thing From Another World (1951), which in turn was adapted from the original 1938 John W. Campbell, Jr. story Who Goes There? (full text).

One's imagination sometimes provides the most realistic SFX of all.
posted by cenoxo at 9:38 PM on September 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

a lot of the monstrosities actually try to look like the old school special effects in The Thing

I would say this is the case with Half Life, actually.
posted by dhartung at 10:13 PM on September 20, 2011

I ended up watching The Thing From Another World not that long ago and it's not bad for a black & white sci-fi monster flick. It is definitely dated due to the stereotypical characters, including the shrieky woman who hides behind the men.

I just watched the new trailer for the new release of The Thing and honestly it looks like they're remaking Alien. Except Ripley is stuck in Antarctica instead of on the Nostromo.
posted by P.o.B. at 10:20 PM on September 20, 2011

Holy shit, this would scar me if I saw it on Halloween as a child (fan made costume).
posted by cyphill at 10:32 PM on September 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Thing's cool and all but my fave Bill Lancaster screenplay will always be Bad News Bears -- the only 1970s movie that came even remotely close to capturing what a normal childhood was actually like in that warped decade.
posted by philip-random at 10:46 PM on September 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

Holy shit, this would scar me if I saw it on Halloween as a child (fan made costume).

How the hell does he expect to meet girls at a Halloween Party? Dressing up as Kurt Russell would b better.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:55 PM on September 20, 2011

No girls allowed at a proper The Thing party. Well, maybe if they dress up as a computer.
posted by Artw at 11:02 PM on September 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

Heh, whadda coinkydink. I was just mulling around and ended up reading about Dan O'Bannon. I learned he based his screenplay for Alien on The Thing From Another World.
posted by P.o.B. at 11:14 PM on September 20, 2011

Blanking on movie names. The Host, Big Man Japan, Tokyo Gore Police.
posted by jabberjaw at 11:21 PM on September 20, 2011

No girls allowed at a proper The Thing party. Well, maybe if they dress up as a computer.

Can you buy them a drink, or pour one into them?
posted by benzenedream at 1:38 AM on September 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

Nice to have Artw back. Metafilter was poorer for your absence.

God, that new one looks like crap, though.
posted by converge at 3:01 AM on September 21, 2011

Sexy Kurt Russell is another acceptable look for ladies at a The Thing party assuming it features a big bushy beard.
posted by Artw at 6:39 AM on September 21, 2011

/puts wire into petri dish of Artw's blood
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:32 AM on September 21, 2011

SKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

/head detaches from body, scuttles under table on upside down spider legs.
posted by Artw at 9:24 AM on September 21, 2011

/uses flamethrower on flailing & lashing tentacled corpse.
posted by P.o.B. at 10:45 AM on September 21, 2011

/sneaks out and destroys helicopter
posted by brundlefly at 11:23 AM on September 21, 2011

You gotta be fucking kidding....
posted by mikelieman at 11:48 AM on September 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

This is NOT a joking matter! We've got a spider head, and gawd knows what else, crawling around in this place.
posted by P.o.B. at 11:53 AM on September 21, 2011

/to save outside world, smashes comment bo
posted by benzenedream at 2:01 PM on September 21, 2011

My favorite viewing of The Thing was my first. My boyfriend at the time promised me we'd go see E.T. for my birthday, but he and his brother took me to see The Thing instead. It was a Sunday afternoon, the theater was nearly deserted and the guys wanted to sit up close. I watched most of it by peeking out between my fingers. I've never seen a movie that scared me as much as The Thing did that first time. It's the reason we have a blu-ray player in the Fabula house. Did you know that the Doc character has a nose ring? How could I have missed that for 20-some years?
posted by S'Tella Fabula at 2:44 PM on September 21, 2011

S'Tella Fabula: "Did you know that the Doc character has a nose ring? How could I have missed that for 20-some years?"

It's my favorite film and I missed it till fairly recently.

[T]he addition of the nose ring on Dysart's nose was actually Dysart's idea. Carpenter discussed a story that everyone sat down and came up with backstories for their characters. Dysart from some reason believed himself a Russian spy undercover out to steal secrets and kill people.

Because nose rings are exceptionally common among Russian spies. Or something.
posted by brundlefly at 3:09 PM on September 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ah, The Thing, one of my favorite movies of all time. And so began my lifelong love affair with the inestimable Keith David.
posted by nikitabot at 8:19 PM on September 21, 2011

> it very much stands up even 20 years later

The Thing was released 29 years ago.
posted by dgeiser13 at 1:21 PM on September 22, 2011

Brundlefly vs. The Thing is a schlocky horror movie I want to see.

You know, in some ways this gets pretty close...
posted by Artw at 2:43 PM on September 25, 2011

Also properly working genetic seperation technology would be a pretty effective anti-Thing tool, if only he could get the bloody thing working...
posted by Artw at 2:44 PM on September 25, 2011