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31 Days of Horror Movies - Day 17

 

With the days getting chillier, why not up the ante with a stone cold (pun intended) masterpiece that gets under your skin and redefines what paranoia can do. For today's pick, we are traveling to the freezing temperatures of Antarctica, specifically to Outpost 31. If you recognize that name, then you know what today's film is and let me tell you, there's nothing else like this. 

Day 17 - John Carpenter's The Thing

"Man is the warmest place to hide" 

So says the incredibly chilling and bleak tagline for John Carpenter's legendary cult classic, The Thing, based on the novella and the acclaimed 1950s sci-fi classic. The first part of Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy (Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness), The Thing tells the story of an Antarctica Research Station that is invaded by an alien force that mimics and kills each one of the researchers leading to a downward spiral of paranoia and claustrophobia. If the original The Thing from Another World uses the Cold War paranoia to convey its scares, then Carpenter's film is all about post Watergate distrust of authority and really anybody. Carpenter gets that idea of paranoia so incredibly well that the whole film is practically drenched in it; there is distrust between everyone and that is conveyed perfectly through ominous tracking shots (courtesy of longtime Carpenter cinematographer Dean Cundey) and a ridiculously tense score by Ennio Morricone that is as bleak as the icy cold of the research station. Not since Ridley Scott's Alien has a film so effortlessly combined horror and science fiction to create a suspenseful Lovecraftian nightmare that is exceptionally well acted, expertly constructed, and massively influential. There are countless sequences that stand out (the first encounter with the Husky or the disgustingly grotesque autopsy scene are only two examples) but no matter how many times one has seen it, no one is prepared for The Thing. It doesn't matter if you've seen it 100 times or if it's the first time that you let its chilly atmosphere completely envelop you, The Thing shatters expectations. A who's who of legendary '80s character actors, led by the astonishingly great Kurt Russell, star including Keith David, A. Wilford Brimley, Richard Dysart, David Clennon, and many more all give it their all in a film that arguably remains the pinnacle of Carpenter's legendary career as a director. The Thing has directly influenced from episodes of The X-Files, to Quentin Tarantino's filmography (The Hateful 8 is basically his version of The Thing!) but there is no denying it's true power as a horror classic that is truly timeless. We didn't even talked about the groundbreaking and mind-shattering practical effects of Rob Bottin - nothing made today even touches what Bottin accomplished in 1982. 


*All of the recommendations that we make can be found at the El Paso Public Library Catalog!

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