Happy Hour #53 - The Thing (feat. The Outcasts Creative)
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Since its the month of horror, we're kicking things off by revisiting the John Carpenter classic, The Thing.
Subscribe to The Outcasts Creative: / @theoutcastscreative
I’m really happy to see Drinker returning to one-on-one conversations about movies; feels like he hasn’t done that in a very long time.
I've really missed them.
I really enjoy them too. Favourite is Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
.. Those 'Comics' are garbage - The GAME is the 'Sequel.'
Saw The Thing for the first time last month. Completely lived up to the hype and still holds up 40 years later. Nothing more to say other than it deserves all the praise it gets!
Just don’t watch the 2011 one 😢
@@heey_im_mike Agree, it doesn't have the tension or script and the CGI is uninspired and boring
Greatest remake of all time.
Will make you have trust issues for a good minute.
Im glad it got the chance to be later recognized for what it was even if it bombed in theaters. A true cult classic and one of the best films of all time.
I love the "Let's warm things up" scene. That is the moment where they commit themselves to a suicide mission and in a sense gain power from it. No chance of survival holding them back, it is do and die kamikaze time.
Although I've read it was discounted by John Carpenter, there's a fan theory that in the ending, Childs is a 'thing'. When MacReady offers him a swig from his bottle of booze, it's actually one of the molotov cocktails he'd been using. When Childs drinks it without reacting, MacReady realises Childs is infected and laughs to himself, resigned to his fate as he knows he's in no position to do anything about it.
That’s a popular theory
There's also offshoots, like his breath isn't visible etc etc.
I do like that it's somewhat left on a cliffhanger to be fair
Carpenter confirms they're both human on the director's track but delibertately left it open ended.
The fact the defibrillator scene ended up with the Thing going up in flames for real, leading to Rob Bottin having to spend days painfully rebuilting it all again from scratch, makes me appreciate the hard work put into practically effects, even more.
Now most of the effects you see in films and especially TV is CGI garbage. Like even something simple like a fireplace in a scene will sometimes be CG fire, which NEVER looks good. It's mind boggling they spend what they do for CG rendering when the practical effect has to be so much cheaper.
@joeyservo agreed. Cgi can be ok, if utilised smartly. But man, I saw on FB that on Spiderman: No Way Home that Nick Furys tranq gun was CGI. Seriously, couldn't even fix up a cheap Prop. I just dud a review on Evil Dead, and in that I mention the effort and clever thinking Sam Raimi went into to make that movie, despite his limited resources.
So they aren't fully effects just yet, but they are practically effects! Lol
@@joeyservothe balrog looks good!
The interesting thing about this movie is when you read the actual script. As Dr Copper was not supposed to die by getting his arms bitten off, but survived up until Palmer turned. Meaning, there was still issues to who was meant to die originally. Amazing how in the time that this was made, the crew managed to handle the story changes in a timely fashion.
The DVD commentary with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell is well worth a listen also.
It absolutely is.
This is true for any commentary track with those two. It's just them shooting the shit and Kurt laughing his ass off.
Came here to post this. Extremely comfy commentary. I think it was originally recorded for the laser disc. Lots of cool insights and their chemistry is out of this world. Hoping we get another collab out of them before either of them croak.
@@PanzerblitzRnRit’s so comfortable you forget when they go completely off track. I laughed when after 20 minutes of them talking about barbecues and baseball they suddenly realise and get back to the movie.
So are the other two they did together for Escape from New York and Big Trouble in Little China!. And Carpenter and Piper together on They Live is great too.
Drinker has a mix of positive and negative reviews on his channel, which i appreciate. Too many of his contemporaries are relentless ragebait, which starts to come off as somewhat forced and disingenuous. "Gee i wonder what [channel] thinks of this thing they're reviewing. Oh what a surprise, they hate it and think it's the worst thing ever". Can be entertaining, but too much of it becomes tiresome. Better balance on this channel.
I saw this on its original theatrical release. The theater was empty except for me. About half way through I almost got up and left because I was that freaked out. I’m glad that I stayed. This movie is brilliant on many levels. I’m an actor-my stage name is MacReady because of this flick.
Man! I’m jealous. I was 8 years old when this movie was released theatrically. Breaks my heart that the cinema was empty. This movie is a masterpiece
I’ve missed Happy Hour. Thanks for bringing it back.
This movie really displays how superior practical effects are to CGI when done appropriately.
For me, wot makes practical effects superior is that the camera angle on them is usually carefully considered, with the camera continuously moving. Versus CGI, where the camera's focus is static and the effect is just shoved up the viewer's nose.
Fellowship of the Ring's Balrog
Same thing with the old Indy movies.
Agreed, we have all sorts of examples where even really primitive movies benefit from great cinematography. Every movie can benefit from it while it is mostly lost in newer movies, where they adopt over the top special effects over cinematography and practical effects only slipping in some stunts to keep people interested
@@occultnightingale1106 You need CGI for some stuff, but its way overused and looks out of place nowdays.
Just look at the T-Rex from Jurassic Park a perfect mix of both worlds.
I watched The Thing last weekend with my 20 year old son, he thought it was fantastic. We're watching Big trouble in little China this weekend... it's all in the reflexes
Jack Burton may be my favorite Carpenter creation
They live and the fog 😍
My favourite horror of all time, classic story telling with great practical fx. Carpenter for me was a great underestimated auteur.
John Carpenter is a masterful director and what i love is that he has never revealed "who was first". It absolutely builds that paranoia as drinker says and every second of the movie is filled with tension and absolute horror.
70- end 80' s Carpenter was an apex creative. These movies will live as long as we do.
By far my favorite horror movie of all time. The spider head haunts my nightmares...😢
Which Spider head?
@@madcapmakov2 when the dude's head turns into a spider
Ok cuz remember there's two different spider head things. I remember the ceiling spider the most.@@r.adamcalloway8544
Not as horrifying as Norris's chest bursting opening. Seriously, there needs to be a notice that reads:
"Warning: Pregnant woman should be advised not to see this film."
I didn't think it would get worse then chest maw when I first saw it. Fuck was I wrong.
Take a short story with a great premise, a brilliant director of horror movies, an amazing cast of talented actors, and possibly the greatest practical effects magician....throw that lot into a blender of blood and guts and imagination.... and you get this masterpiece. It's as good today as the first time I saw it 40 years ago.
First saw this on DVD when I was 11. Couldn’t get past the dog kennel scene. Tried again when I was 14, got through it, loved it, and refused to be alone with my dog for a little while! 😂
I was the same, maybe a bit older but that scene is still the only thing that's ever scared me in a movie.
The only thing missing would be some asian grabbing a bite after they barbacue the dog :p
Same except I was skeptical of everything organic.
The Thing is in my top 5 movies of all time. Almost everything about it displays a master of horror at the top of his game.
I'd put it right up there with Aliens.
I stumbled upon The Thing on TV at the age of about 11 one night when I was allowed to stay up and the parents had gone to bed. So I was sitting there by myself in the middle of the night, 11 y/o, when the dog starts coming apart and of course nearly shit myself.
Edit: Wait wait wait wait, what?? The Thing recreated Bennings' clothes. Wow, I never picked up on that all these years. So the "clothes" on Thing Bennings was Thing flesh chameleoning as clothing. LMAO That never dawned on me, I'm so stupid.
I think Lance is wrong about infected people thinking they're still human, that full takeover takes time. We see how fast the Thing can morph and grow. Look how fast Norris' head grows those legs and eye stalks. Look how fast Windows was completely turned after being attacked by Palmer, with the weird noises he was making. I think the Thing is just smart enough to pantomime and throw off suspicion. When they're doing the hot wire test, everybody is nervous when their blood is about to be tested. But when they get to Palmer he just makes that nonchalant, shrugging sort of expression, like, "Oh well, you got me."
Agree and mate I've made a comment earlier my 10yo self is still scared 4 decades later
Adrienne Barbeau is still alive I'm glad to say 🙂
Yeah, I had to stop and check when they said that. I was thinking "When did that happen?". Fortunately, she's still with us.
Carpenter's musical scores are deceptively simple. Very effective at setting the mood. I agree, his music IS a character in the movie.
The Thing is basically the movie Alien...but so many differences in excellent ways. I can watch either on repeat and I honestly can't decide which one is my favorite
"I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but I'd rather not spend all Winter TIED TO THIS ****ING COUCH!"
Epic movie with so many epic lines.
But my favorite part is during MacReadys blood test...where Windows legitimately doesnt known if HE is the Thing (which is hilarious and utterly terrifying)
My favorite movie of all time. Not horror movie, just movie. Every scene and line was worth it. And the ambiguous ending perfect.
I'm right there with you. I'm not even a big horror film guy but this movie is a 10/10 for me.
Lance is an awesome guest - have him on again!
Cheers for inviting me on for this Drinker. I really enjoyed it and was a ton of fun. Almost forgot we were live until we got to the superchats, just like chatting down the pub.
Spoiler: The best part about the "you gotta be f-ing kidding" guy is that by that point he is already a Thing. That makes you wonder how aware the individual Things are at any moment. Are they sleeper cells that only awaken under certain circumstances that benefit the Thing? Was that a genuine reaction based on the absorbed personality of the guy, or was it the Thing pretending to be shocked to help disguise itself? Those kinds of questions are why I love this film.
I wondwr this myself since watching..is the "thing" person aware they are a thing on some level. Norris having pain prior to hos "heart attack" he seems confused and its hard to figure if hes actually aware hes the parasite.
Well we know by Blair's analysis that it can take you over on a cellular level, but we also see Bennings transformed quickly, so Palmer may have been in midtransformation.
Blair was taken the moment he put the pencil eraser on the dog thing and then into his mouth
@@wartooth88 nah, he was acting to thwart the thing until he was put into the shed.
@@johnmurdoch8534 or, he wanted to be put out there to have privacy building his escape ship. Trashing the helicopters originally was not to keep the team there, but get him the parts he required.
Top 5 horror, #1 The Shining, #2 Alien, #3 The Thing, #4 The Fog, #5 Event Horizon
Fun Fact: Kurt Russell’s acting debut was kicking Elvis Presley in the shin as a child.
He was also on an episode of Gilligan's Island.
In a fair ground. Not bad baseball play for his dad 😉 17:27
What do you mean why would they have flame throwers? It' a 12 polar chads! Why wouldn't they have flame throwers? I would highly recommend a short story called "The Things". It is a telling of the story from the alien's perspective. It sounds goofy but it is very well written and 100% serious. Also there is a Dead Space movie with Bryan Cranston in 1991. Also, in Harbinger down near the beginning you can see the Chess Master machine in the foreground.
The one thing that people don't mention about the dead human at the Norwegian base is he also cut his own throat and it's not simple slice he's REALLY cut into his throat deep. That alone for shadow's how bad things will get.
First watch was in 86', and still my favorite horror.
First time I’ve seen Lance, and he’s awesome. Genuinely loves film, and seems like a really nice bloke.
Bless you sir, most kind.
love the depth of exploration on The Thing guys. One of my all time favorite movies hands down. And Creative you got a new subscriber sir!
I've always wondered how Benning's freakishly large Thing hands fit through the sleeves of his coat.
Did you notice the wires attaching the chest-burst Norris arms to the ceiling when MacReady is burning it?
1:41:00 - "Alien" is horror, not science fiction. The setting is sci-fi, but the basic story could be set in modern times or even in the 1700's. Imagine a tall sailing vessel bringing its cargo home, but they spot a column of smoke, and investigate. They find a derelict, and investigate, but something supernatural was aboard and infects one of them. The away team returns, and they resume course. A day later, the creature bursts out of the infected guy. The rest of the crew is trapped on the ship with the monster that's hunting them down, one by one.
A sci-fi story asks the question, "What if...?" Gattaca or Back To The Future are classic Sci-Fi stories! So is Frankenstein.
So what is Chats vote?
1) Childs is a Thing.
2) MacReady is a Thing.
3) Both.
4) Neither.
I actually enjoyed the prequel. It wasn't on par with the original, obviously, but it was still much better than most 'horror' movies that get pumped out these days. It's just too bad that they ditched the practical effects to go with CG, because the practical looked way better.
I read that Morricone's idea for the score was a heartbeat that was wrong and out of synch...much like the things perversion of human biology....what a genius he was
In the book the Thing had to kill its victim in secret as it had to turn into its natural (defenceless) form to absorb and assimilate the body especially as dead brain cells turn into mush after only 4 minutes.
In the book they had cattle which had been infected but they had injected the cows milk with no ill affects (other than one of the characters puking when he found out). So when Blair says it can imitate its victim perfectly he's not joking.
What just happened here, I was just thinking about this movie and also rewatched drinker,s review yesterday. And today there,s a drinker chaser about it
funny to hear that the drinker watched " old action ( and horror) movies" with his father. Doing the same with my son now. for me a definite trip down memory lane and for him, even at 14 years old he does already see the difference between the oldies but goldies and the garbage that is made now. the thing is together with aliens, the fly and perhaps some others hallmarks of movies that would never be made today. and every old fart remembers the stuff from vestron and cannon which was also garbage most of the times but good and cool garbage especially when you were a bright eyed adolescent looking for monsters and hot girls.
The thing is such a quality horror film. Not knowing who you can trust until it's too late, seeing the thing take on frightening forms of its victims, but never seeing the thing itself. Easily one of my top 10 horror films of all time. 🎉
I grew up on horror movies. Real life scares me more than anything fictional :)
I have an admission .... Me and 2 mates, at age 10ish watched 'The Thing's at the mates parents place as the adults where bbq and some box wine party ..... When finished we went outside and our parents asked what the hell was wrong as we were sickly pale and freaked out ..... We had just watched The Thing and had the souls terrified out of us like no other movie ever achieved.
And I admit, 40 odd yrs later I have NEVER BEEN ABLE to re-watch the thing ....
Relieving the tale brings back OMG moments and things that I had honest to god blanked out .....
I have to do one of those self deprecating lol now but my mind absolutely freezes up at the thought of trying to watch it ..... Maybe I at least download it and find someone cute to hold my hand as I watch 😊
I say bite the bullet, give it a watch. Great movie.
@@siradro I know ... I've just downloaded it as I'm watching this discussion, this YT video is just a great one and why I enjoy the drinker getting critical and with a guest who I've just subbed to now as well ....
I KNOW I got to watch it again, I'll have my spare underwear 🩳 on standby .... But yes I'm a god dam 50yo chicken 🐔🐔🐔🐔
I'll add a comment if I make it .... So funny that a movie 4 decades later can have an effect ... Wish me luck drinker and buddies!!!
27,000 hours is a little over 3 years. About 3 years and a month.
John Carpenter's the thing is ok but it will never replace the original pingu version.
John Carpenter's movies were relatively low budget, so they had to get really creative with the special effects and that created the best practical special effects. It also forced them to keep the special effects subtle, leaning into that "less is more" philosophy that also worked quite well in Alien: just show flashes of the monster and that enhances the creepiness.
Actually the thing had the highest buget for a horror film to that date. Money well spent.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed how a lot of back in the day actors looked older. Leslie Nielsen is a great example.
only just getting round to listening to this - Just doing my usual 2pence as someone who works in vfx and animation :)
Its been a long long time since i watched this film - really need to again!
the vfx are great, the gore is great but i really love the simplicity of the story... the helicopter chasing the dog at the start trying to kill it... and thats how the whole film situ ends upside down. BUT... the film has the good sense to keep the whole thing contained to that one research spot... theres no giant 3rd act involving getting the team to assemble, chasing down the original source of the virus and killing it there amidst a gigantic on-the-snow Avengers battle. It stays claustrophic despite the big open space of the arctic, and local to its science lab area. You know these guys cant really get away from where they are and whats happening.
Which then leads to the next question to ponder... these guys chase the dog down in a copter.. meaning there IS a far bigger outbreak of something in ANOTHER facility on the ice somewhere.
The other thing i really love... you dont get to SEE the "assimilation" of people as such.. you dont see it climb up them and cause the people intensive agony and screaming pain. Its like the Thing can very quietly infect its host.. .almost instant and effortless... but when its ready to erupt it tears through its victim in ultra creative ways.
As much as I love the Drinker and co. shit on bad movies, it's equally enjoyable to hear some gushing about really good ones.
Just a great film all round. Excellent set design, fantastic music and eerie sound design, awesome cast, script and story.
Plus the alien... chilling.
This was really fun. The thing is one of my favorite movies of all time. That synth heartbeat sound. The howl from the first infected scientist. Was terrifyying to me.
District 9 was made on budget of 30 million
Actually Larry Franco was the one in the blue coat, who got blown up with the helicoptor as he tries to dig the grenade out of the snow. The one with the assault rifle and trying to explain in Norsk is actually German Actor Norbert Weisser, Might have seen him before in Midnight Express, Schindler's List and the Road to Wellville. I could tell he was German speaking in the way he was pronouncing the Norsk Dialogue.
yeah thanks for that correction, you're bang on
Critical drinker, don't you think it's weird that ROB BOTTIN is not hired for something now a days. Superior over CGI!
He retired.
Keep in mind John Carpenter's film was a REMAKE itself, of 1951's The Thing from Another World.
Which Carpenter used excerpts of in "Halloween (1978)". It was playing on the TV when Laurie was babysitting Tommy
I'm glad you actually linked to Outcasts Creative in the description. So many channels promote their guests in the video without actually providing a direct link to their channels in the description, instead having endless links to their own work cluttering the description box. I find that rude and lazy.
Thanks very much Faradawg
I remember in summer of '82 when John Carpenter's The Thing was playing in the same theater as E.T. I begged my parents to take me to see The Thing, they insisted that we see E.T. I consider this Mr. Carpenter's Sistine chapel. He's made great films throughout his amazing career, but this is truly his masterpiece. Thank you Mr. Critical Drinker for celebrating one of the greatest sci-fi horror movies ever made.
This film scared the shit out of me as a kid when it came out!! Must watch it again someday.
Drinker this is Happy hour #54 not #53
The Thing does not recreate clothes. It cant recreate inorganic things. In the Bennings scene he is shirtless on the upper torso. Recreate clothes?!?! Now you're giving the Thing powers it doesn't have.
I actually said this is an error in the film, if The Thing does not have that ability, as the ripped red body warmer of Bennings can clearly be seen in the shot before panning over to where he is being assimilated and its on the body, so either it can reproduce clothes or its a mistake in the film, I personally think its the latter.
Do a Happy Hour of Leviathan. Basically the underwater equivalent of The Thing starring Peter Weller and Ernie Hudson respectively playing MaCready and Childs
Carpenter apparently wrote a sequel rough draft set on a submarine and my own reality has someone stealing that general idea and making Leviathan
I was at the UK premiere screening of that with the Second Unit Director, Mike Valentine who gave a talk on it including the original ending in the script.
The flame throwers could be used to clear an area for the helicopter to land.
If you haven't seen it already, check out 'Pingu's THE THING (aka. Thingu)', a claymation parody of The Thing by Lee Hardcastle. Utterly brilliant.
Without a doubt this film is absolutely amazing from beginning to end
I can totally buy they'd have flame throwers around just to melt ice off outdoor equipment. When I was near Sapporo in the winter, there was a little old japanese guy going around with an oldschool flame torch melting ice around the manhole covers.
I'm from Norway, and remember rewinding that bit for all to get it. It was great.😀 Good times..
Cannibal Holocaust is generally considered the first film to feature Found Footage, although it was generally inspired by the Mondo series of Italian fake documentaries that also featured some real life executions etc. Not for the squeamish that’s for sure.
I saw it opening day back in 1982. Having read the short story "Who Goes There?" I realized something was up as soon as I saw the guys in the chopper shooting at the husky. I remember the theater being pretty packed, but when I came back to watch it again there was a 90% drop off. This of course was the year we had a lot of classic movies come out in a short period of time. Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, The Road Warrior, The Wrath of Khan, Poltergeist all came out that late spring and early summer of 1982 (along with E.T.). I always thought The Thing just got lost in the whirlwind of incredible cinema viewing.
Just watched it again. Soooo good. I love how the Norwegian camp basically is their camp in the future.
I used to be a serious insomniac when I was in my late teens. I'd find a random movie on late night cable to watch if I couldn't sleep. I discovered The Thing at 1AM on a week night. Such a great viewing experience.
My top 5 Horror movies,1970-1990:
Alien
The Shining
The Exorcist
The Thing
The Evil Dead
My Top 5 Horror movies:
28 Days Later…
The Grudge
Alien
The Ring
The Shining
I know, everyone hates The Grudge but me. It pushed all my personal scare buttons.
My all time favorite movie.
I’ve missed this. Thanks!
OH NO... What with the Earth, and all that "climate change crisis" yammer going on, and now, with the Thing, and all, when the Earth warms up enough to melt the polar caps, the Thing WILL BE BACK.!.!.!.!.! Hehehehe
I was 8 when it came out. At that time my dad would go see movies i couldn’t and then review them for me. He hated THE THING, mainly because of the “gore” plus he was a big fan of the original and felt it left nothing to the imagination. Now unlike what is shown in the first episode of STRANGER THINGS no one had a THE THING poster on their wall in the early 80s. What helped THE THING build an adoring audience was FIRST CHOICE/SUPER CHANNEL playing it 14 times a week for a year…by the mid to late 80s it was part of young movie lovers zeitgeist.
SPOILER ALERT THE THING:
Child's was a Thing. Throughout the movie anytime he goes outside he wears his skull cap. In the last scene he's isn't wearing a hat at all.
Flaim thrower to melt ice
Coincidentally "The Thing" is also what I usually use to refer to [[they/them]]s.
The Thing ( it / that )
With the world being blessed with my arrival in 72, I had the pleasure of seeing most of my Desert Island films (Predator / Wrath of Khan / Aliens / The Thing) first time around. I was able to BS my way into Predator underage at the Cinema, and saw both Wrath of Khan and Aliens at the Cinema on release. However late night Terrestrial TV was my first chance to see the Thing (quite possibly Alex Cox's Moviedrome late night films series?) The film rocked and is packed with awesome lines. "It isn't Bennings..." No f'ing shit lol! But it was to be several years later when I got the Blu-ray that the film stealing line to let Garry of the couch was mine to behold!
If you thought the 2011 remake was bad, wait for the "Modern Audience" reboot, starring Melissa McCarthy and Leslie Jones.
32:30
Arctic and Antarctic stations routinely have access to flamethrowers. They're really REALLY good at de-icing machinery. I mean they probably get called 'remote heating units' or whatever, and the one they have in the thing looks like a military one, but having the ability to throw down some serious burn is 100% plausible in situation.
34:00
Three years thirty days. It'd not be all that tricky to get a low end early pomkutor to get that number. It'd just not be accurate. If one thing converts two people every twenty four hours, it's only about six weeks to infect all humans on earth, so their numbers appear damned conservative.
45:00
Adrienne Barbeau is still alive.
52:00
If the Thing replicates clothing, and I ain't sayin' it's not, then, surely, you can detect infected people by taking off a sock and whacking it with a hammer.
1:00:00
Block capitals predate The Thing by decades. Doing so was common place at least in England for, like, ever.
1:05:00
If the Thing is building a flying saucier, would that not imply it is trying to get back into space, and, therefore, the film kinda turns round into 'innocent crash survivor gets persecuted by angry natives and has to defend itself whilst just trying to get home'? And if so, isn't this a remake of ET?
1:11:00
Penguins are sorta famous for not being able to fly...
1:32:00
You say Ringu, I raise you Pingu, specifically, Pingu's The Thing.
2:04:00
Uh... the aliens in Space Hulk are blue and purple versions of the xenomorph. Dead space has pink and beige zombie mutants. I have no idea how one could think they look like each other, they really, really don't.
Drinker, I love these one-on-one shows. When you have a bunch of guests, they end up having to lob in the odd funny bit just to be heard. This is a much more relaxed and better format. I also think John Carpenter deserves more respect. What a fantastic body of work he has done. Big Trouble in Little China, Halloween, The Thing, Escape from New York. Even the low budget Dark Star is a fun and interesting movie. Weird and pissed off, what a line.
Brannon Braga did an homage to "The Thing" in Star Trek Enterprise,
The Episode is called:
"Regeneration" it's about Borg drones frozen in the Antartic and is a kind of sequel to The ST TNG Movie "First Contact"
O yess who dares wins is another absolutely classic R.I.P mr Collins without a doubt one of the coolest guys around bk then
Fun fact about the music :
In 'The Hateful Eight' Ennio Morricone used some tracks he made for The Thing, 'bestiality', 'despair' and 'eternity', with bestiality ending up not being used in The Thing, not sure about the others. One more reason why I love those movies.
1:42:00 - my own favorite contemporary horror movies are The Thing, The Frighteners, The Mist, and 1408.
No, you’re wrong about Bennings still wearing his coat.
I just rewatched the scene. When Windows finds him being assimilated his orange coat-vest is ripped to shreds, and he’s naked from the waste up with its tentacles all around him (and coming out of his mouth).
When the catch up to Bennings-thing in the snow, he’s wearing a different coat (presumably one he lifts from the storeroom before he escaped out its window).
Literally rewatching the scene again as I type this.
The thing can only assimilate and reproduce live cells (though it’s up for debate if it can revive and assimilate dead cells). It can’t recreate lifeless materials (such as coats). The (admittedly troubled prequel) also backs this up.
As you obliquely mentioned, Bennings was storyboarded to die being dragged under the ice by a big tentacle-mouth while he and MacReady were chasing an escaped (and infected) dog, but Carpenter chose a different take on his death to better illustrate that it can do to us what it tried to do to the dogs.
Another note: one of the reasons they didn’t use the Fuchs shovel death is because it brought up the obvious question of why it wouldn’t assimilate him and would leave knowingly leave evidence behind. He’d be much more useful as a host.
Re Palmer’s transformation: there was a deleted scene (unfilmed as I recall) where Childs and Palmer go to check on their hidden weed growing operation just after the base blackout. That’s when they were supposed to find Fuchs nailed to the door with a shovel. It was also during that period (the blackout) that Palmer was supposed to get got off-screen. Also, if you look closely, just before his blood gets tested, he twitches the corner of his mouth and shifts his eyes downward like he “might” know the jug is about to be up. It was like he was quietly saying, “Welp,” to himself. Makes you wonder if he was just scared what might happen or if he knew for damn sure what would.
Re Nauls: there were also storyboards where just as “big thing” comes for MacReady, a big tentacle with what’s left of Nauls on the end of it was supposed to be being absorbed appears. He was supposed to beg Mac for help and scream how much it hurts before the tentacle fills his mouth and then basically splits him apart, but they didn’t film it for time, budget, and effects reasons. The storyboards are on Outpost 31 as I recall. That’s where I first read about them.
My top 3 Carpenter movies. #1 The Thing, #2 Escape from New York, #3 Big Trouble in Little China
Can I make a suggestion to one of you guys, go and write a script set in presentation day when a bunch of obnoxious young adults, you know the jock, the prom queen the bookworm, the gay couple etc. They are all adrenaline junkies, snowboarders, etc, who are told a story by the quiet bookworm about the urban myth of the Thing and Kurt Russells group who died at the camp. They then decide to go out and find this place, eventually finding it and the thing, and one by one, they are killed off, but nobody cares because none of them are likeable and the writing and decisions they make are so stupid. You know the usual woke cash crab on a beloved IP. Then you need to copyright this version so it CAN NEVER BE MADE! Without your say so. Thanks
For any fans of the John W. Campbell story, the original manuscript was recently found amongst a forgotten group of his papers. Entitled FROZEN HELL, it has 45 extra pages, the original first 3 chapters that Campbell later cut out. They detail the discovery of the ship, its destruction and the finding of the alien in real time instead of Commander Garry’s short summation in the published story.
There are also some interesting minor differences as well as a bit of information not in the novella.
Definitely recommended.
Great conversation! One thing I think you guys missed talking about was the scene where MacReady was talking into a tape recorder about the situation. The "Nobody....nobody trusts anybody now....and we're all very tired " was haunting, and also quite interesting that he rewound the tape and recorded over that part.
Would it breaking copyright by showing stills that illustrate discussion points? I'd like to be reminded what's being examined. Great discussion of a modern classic.
Just an observation for you, it may or may not be a thing (no pun intended.) At the end of the film MacReady & Childs are sat together and MacReady offers Childs a drink, yet, was he not throwing molotov cocktails to blow the place up? The nod from Kurt Russell always made me think that it wasn't whiskey he offered him, it was petrol and he was like 'yup damn alien' from Childs not spitting it out. Don't know if I'm seeing something that wasn't there but worth a rewatch to see what you all think no?
The palmer thing scene was great...once you know whats going to happen you pick up on palmer. I think palmer KNEW what was up. He was eager to burn macready. He looks down at the ground during the blood test..he has a "caught" look on his face.
The Thing is not a movie I would likely have ever watched because it is just not my taste. Especially the disgusting special effects, its worse than CGI in grossness. However, I saw a review by the drinker on the film and it convinced me to watch it. I loved it because of the joy he had discussing it, how he explained things. and it made me watch the film through a different lens. I actually loved the film because of it. Thank you Drinker.
Does anyone think Mcready could have been played by Harrison Ford? I could, but possibility taking too much shine off the other actors?
Cemetary Man is Michele Soavi’s second best film after Stagefright, and the very last in the Italian horror film cycle begun decades earlier by Riccardo Freda’s I Vampiri.
On ITV Drinker at 9pm and having to wait 40 minutes at 10 o'clock for the news 😢😂 9:58
No love for "Hell Raiser"? For a more campy/schlock horror ... "From Beyond"
Bubba HoTep!