What Makes 'The Thing' The Perfect Human Horror Movie? | Video Essay
Вставка
- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- This is why John Carpenter's acclaimed movie 'The Thing' is the perfect psychological human horror narrative.
► Patreon
/ harbowholmes
► Subscribe!
/ harbowholmes
► Twitter
/ harbowholmes
► Discord
/ discord
► Reddit
/ harbowholmes
#The Thing #VideoEssay
You can commission your very own video right now by going to:
www.patreon.com/harbowholmes
The thing that makes this movie so great in my mind is that the decisions made by characters make sense to me. Almost everything that is done is actually logical. The movie doesn't rely on people making incredibly stupid decisions over and over.
hah, the thing.. get it? get it?
i'll leave
@@kryppled 😂. I got it instantaneously.
It’s interesting that this was actually hounded upon release for being less faithful to the original source material when all it takes is one viewing of The Thing From Another World to showcase how you don’t adapt the source material.
Also a fun piece of trivia is the residents of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station annually screens the film to make the beginning of Winter.
The original source material was not The Thing From Another World. Original source is the novella Who Goes There? which is much, much closer to The Thing.
I had never seen The Thing before, but this makes me want to drop everything and watch it. Thanks for the recommendation Harbo and Daniel!
I consider it the best horror movie ever made,it's slow but it keeps the suspense all the way through to the end, it's also a good movie to watch multiple times as you may perceive it a different way on each watch or you'll notice something you didn't see before, (hopefully by the time of me typing this you've watched it)
Welcome to the rabbit hole!
The main musical score with those two beats remind me of a heartbeat, but the synthesised element to it makes it seem unnatural, to me it represents the actual monster. Man this film is incredible
I watched as a kid but didn’t remember a thing (no pun intended) and I rewatched it tonight and realized why this is an absolute masterpiece. The atmosphere, acting and human factor is why this is a classic
Masterpiece.
Long before "Among Us", this film was also one of the primary inspirations for WarHammer 40K's Tyranids armies. And given the WH40K references sprinkled through Gaiman's second episode of Who, I hope for you to read up on it before you get to that one.
This pretty much sums up why The Thing is my fav horror movie & in my top 3 all time movies.
What's the other 2?
@@mikerodgers7620 Tie between Friday Part IV & Part VI
Okay.@@sagelg
I thought Friday the 13th VII: The New Blood was great. I saw that at the movies.@@sagelg
@@mikerodgers7620 New Blood is ok. It’s not great but it’s also not terrible like Part V.
What’s your opinion on Jason X & the Reboot?
Great movie. That blood testing scene is so tense and scary.
@davee.9906 thank you and the other scene Norris-Thing when Copper uses the defibrillator on it's chest and then it's chest opens as a mouth with sharp teeth and chews Coppers arms off and eats them and then it takes it's head off and transforms it's head into I believe it's a Spider-Head and a Head-Crab combined together as well:).
The Thing is a masterpiece in horror,complete and comprehensive.
@PlanetNateGaming thank you anyway The Thing (1982) directed by John Carpenter is my number 1 favorite sci-fi horror movie and Alien (1979) is my 2nd favorite sci-fi horror movie and it's because both of them have the most brutal scenes out of every other horror movie The Thing (1982) Chesteater scene and Alien (1979) Chestburster scene so I have considered both of them the greatest sci-fi horror movies ever created as well:).
A fantastic analysis of the only horror movie that's ever scared me. Well done
Tuesday Harbo videos are very underrated
John W. Campbell's Who Goes There blew my young mind when I first read it. Still a great read now…very highly recommended!
This is a great breakdown and review
nice video bro, hope to see you branching out to even more variety in the future
The brilliant thing think about the Norwegians is that theyre trying to warm the Americans the dog is a monster but they can't understand
5:48 I don't think MacReady was a "only out for himself" kind of character. Practical? Yes. Realist? Yes. But, if MacReady really only cared about himself I don't think he would have stopped Garry from shooting Blair when Blair was smashing up the radio equipment. Also, he stepped in to defuse the situation between Windows and Garry.
Brilliant perspectives
The Thing is my favourite movie of all, its ny happy place
Great video!! A bit late to the party (that 8 hour Victorious one ate up a lot of time) but I'm so glad I saved it!
Plus the line in Halloween ends evil changes shape sounds like that applies to the thing to lol.
Great video
My opinion is they never should have split up. that way Childs would have been with them as they crashed into the base and destroyed one room at a time till the generator room scene. Then, two at a time, they could have placed the dynamite and Blair thing would have had to be more cautious. with more than one flame thrower just in reach he could not afford to catch one and assimilate without burning himself up.
True, it didn't make much sense for them to do that
I love your voice and accent lmao
It's on Tonight on universal monsters streaming channel 👹 10-15-24 1:30 am pt just thought 🤔 I would mention that THING ❤
I LOVE THIS MOVIE
What i don't get is that it was a failure when it premiered in theaters????!?!?!?!
I know right!
Imagine getting to see this film for the first time, in the cinema, in 1982. I can't imagine how people were not awestruck at how amazing it is and the wild ride the movie takes you on.
ET
@@GemR38 i have read that people hated it and roger ebert gave it bad reviews?????????!!!!!
Similar themes in the thing can be found in Halloween too lol. The shape and the thing very similar entities both are not what they pretending to be and anybody can be the thing or the shape a boy A man a girl a dog anybody anything could be one of these things lol. Plus in Halloween ends and end of Halloween four shows how the evil can infect other people just like the thing does or similar lol especially in ends once you're infected you're not you anymore lol.
tbh you need to do Stargate at some point
People in the 80’s: “ you know ‘The Thing’? Yeah it was too scary it freaking sucked balls.
People now: “ ‘The Thing’ was freaking incredible! John Carpenter is a horror genius. Shit was terrifying.
Nobody in the 80s said that. I was there. The issue was that the thing went up against a ton of other good movies.
Also, critics in the early 80s were still in their gritty drama phase from the 70s. Everyone I knew adored this movie as did most scifi fans.
It is the best horror movie ever made
@PureEvil1138 my friend cool anyway The Thing (1982) directed by John Carpenter and Alien (1979) directed by Ridley Scott they are both my favorite sci-fi horror movies and it's because they both have the most brutal scenes out of every other horror movie The Thing (1982) Chesteater scene and Alien (1979) Chestburster scene so I have considered both of them the greatest sci-fi horror movies ever created as well:).
Didn't know that the score got a razzie, that seems a little harsh
Yeah, well the composer gets the last laugh
a little harsh? try totally fucking unjustified.
Heart beat
Why does this only have 200 views?
Because it was released twenty minutes ago
This is one of my favorite movies. But... couldn't they just cut hair and burn it to figure out who were the thing instead of blood?
I disagree with the common interpretation of MacReady as the selfish loner... The movie is far more nuanced. MacReady is the first to realize they need to stop the Thing otherwise mankind is doomed, and to act accordingly (unlike Blair, who just loses his shit). He is simultaneously a misanthrope and a hero. At no point does he try to save his own skin.
Why didn’t you mention the original 1950’s movie?
I don’t think the FX stand up in 2022
Carpenter's version will always be better than the original
*"Thing"* was one of the Marvel Super Heroes. I was so disappointed when I bought the comic and saw the film to find that this was a totally different concept that just stole the name.
{:o:O:}.
It didn't steal the name. It happened to have the same name.
Norwegians, especially scientists, can speak English very well............
Is this a re-upload?
No
amonmg us
It was first adapted as The Thing in 1951 not 1982.
This movie is something ferocious!