The Thing – Collector’s Edition

Summary

Shout!Factory is one of my favorite film distributors mainly due to their label Scream Factory that focuses on pristine releases of cult classic horror films. Releases that the label is known for include titles like Lifeforce, Return of the Living Dead, Army of Darkness, and numerous other gems. I have described my affinity for this label in numerous reviews, but with The Thing, they have set a standard that is going to be very difficult for other labels to live up to. I preordered my copy of this film as soon as I saw it become available for pre-order and am writing this on the day of the release. I should preface by saying that John Carpenter is one of my favorite directors of all time, and The Thing is one of his best films and one of the best sci-fi/horror hybrid films ever made. If you have not seen it, just go ahead and buy it right now before you read another line.

The Thing takes place at a remote scientific research facility in Antarctica. Numerous workers are beginning to get ready for the winter ahead. They have been out of communication with anybody from the outside world for three weeks. R.J. McReady (Kurt Russell) has just lost another computerized chess game while drinking a bottle of J&B Skotch. Meanwhile, a Norwegian-helmed helicopter chasing a husky dog across the snow and ice approaches the base firing a rifle from the bay of the chopper. One of the two people onboard accidentally blows up their helicopter while attempting to throw a grenade towards the dog. Unable to speak English, the other pilot attempts to shoot the dog and wounds a worker at the base. He is killed in the misunderstanding. Dr. Copper (Richard Dysart) requests that McReady come with him to the Norwegian facility to see what exactly is going on. The base is in absolute shambles, with no survivors, but they do find a large strange dead creature that seems to have numerous faces and limbs. They bring it back to the base for a proper autopsy, and very strange and horrible things begin to happen. As the thing begins to attempt to emulate all that it encounters, all of the crew become paranoid and unsure of whom they can trust.

Rewatching The Thing a couple times, I was reminded of Just how amazing this movie really is. Everything in the film comes together brilliantly. The performance by Kurt Russell ranks as one of his best, and showcases one of the strongest beards ever donned by any human being. McReady is one of my favorite protagonists and by the finale of the film, that should be the case for any viewer. Other standout performers include T.K. Carter, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, and Richard Masur. The script itself by Bill Lancaster is fantastic – building the proper amount of tension from each encounter with the thing. The script also builds a lot more character development than was present in the film from the Fifties. The Thing has just enough humor, landing a few well placed lines by McReady to keep the audience engaged. 

It is easily one of the more frightening horror films due to some truly unique and disgusting creature effects by Rob Bottin, most of which still look remarkable today. This is a great reminder that CGI doesn’t always deliver something that looks better than a practical effect.

The score by Ennio Morricone is very effective and helps with building tension throughout the film, with a good amount of influence by John Carpenter. Ennio Morricone is actually my favorite film composer with John Carpenter in my top five, so it is fun to watch a film where both of their influences can be felt.

The direction by Carpenter is top-notch as per usual with fantastic cinematography by Dean Cundey. The cold landscape of the film lends to really unique visuals that stick with the audience. This obviously was a tremendously difficult film to shoot due to the setting, but like all hard things, the results are greater due to the effort employed.

At the time of its release, some considered the film a bit too gloomy, and it caught some flack. Those people obviously are morons, and I feel sorry for them. As stated before, Carpenter is a legend to me, and this is one of his best films. Go out and get it today. 

Video

Shout!Factory did a fantastic job on the transfer of the film using an MPEG-4 AVC codec of a new 2K restoration. The transfer is another solid effort by Shout!Factory and the image looks natural and good, retaining the full filmic look. Dean Cundey’s cinematography looks stunning, and the film effectively takes you to the Antarctic. Films like this benefit so heavily from the Blu-ray format. Comparison to the DVD version would just be silly, and I personally prefer this version to the Universal Blu-ray from a few years ago.

Note: since the writing of this review, Shout!Factory has also released a limited steelbook of The Thing which is sourced from a 4K scan.

Audio

Shout!Factory has really gone above and beyond on this release. They have provided a brand new DTS-HD Master Audio 4.1 track that sounds fantastic, along with the previous great Universal 5.1 track, and a 2.0 track. Toggling between the 4.1 and 5.1, both sound great, with not too much of a difference between the two, but given Scream Factory’s due diligence, I watched the film in the 4.1 track and it sounded absolutely fantastic. For a track from 1982, it sounds amazing. The Ennio Morricone score from the film still has Carpenter’s fingerprints all over it, and goes down as one of the better collaborations in horror soundtracks. This is great stuff.

Supplements:

Requiem for a Shape Shifter: John Carpenter Interview with Mick Garris – an excellent interview with the master. He discusses the difficulties faced on the film, his musical career, Ennio Morricone, and his reasoning behind filming in widescreen. 

The Men of Outpost 31 -interviews with Keith David, Wilford Brimley, David Clennon, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Joel Polis, and Thomas G. Waites. Pretty amazing that they got all of the cast to sit down for interviews.

Assembly and Assimilation – an enlightening interview with editor Todd Ramsay. He talks about the ending to the film which Carpenter originally envisioned, which I found pretty interesting.

Behind The Chameleon: The Sights of The Thing – Peter Kurran and Susan Turner explain how they did the title sequence. Brian Wade and Rob Burman explain how the make-up effects were done with Rob Bottin. Randall William Cook explains the mechanical aspects along with Jim Aupperle for the stop motion work. Susan Turner explains her miniature work.

Sounds from the Cold – The Sound Design of The Thing – Alan Howarth and David Lewis Yeardell explain how the unique sound design of the film was achieved, and how John Carpenter interacted with Ennio Morricone to achieve the score.

Between The Lines – with author Alan Dean Foster – an interview with movie adaptation novelist Alan Dean Foster.

Network Tv Broadcast Version of The Thing (SD; 1:33:45)- I wish more movies would offer this special feature. Pretty interesting to see this film the way it would have aired on WGN.

John Carpenter’s The Thing: Terror Takes Shape – a feature length documentary on the making of the film. Features interviews with everybody involved basically. This was produced in 1998 for the collector’s edition DVD. A great addition. Can you believe they gave us all of this in one release?

The Making of a Chilling Tale – a brief publicity release from 1982. Pretty cool.

The Making of The Thing  – an extended version of the brief publicity release from 1982.

The Art of Mike Ploog  – production art

Back Into The Cold – Revisiting The Filming Location of The Thing – narrated photographs of the location where the film was shot in present day.

Vintage Featurettes – more sweet archival material

Vintage Product Reel – essentially a very short version of the film

Vintage Behind The Scenes Footage – some of the footage from the press releases minus narration

Annotated Production Archive – Pictures highlight the story of the film’s production.

Outtakes 

Theatrical Trailers 

German Trailer 

Teaser Trailer 

TV Spots 

Radio Spots

Still Galleries – divided into Behind The Scenes, Lobby Card and Press Stills, Programs, Posters, Storyboards, and Production Artwork. Very extensive!

There are three audio commentaries, two of which are specific to this release!

Audio Commentary with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell- not a new commentary, but this is obviously great. This is the same as the other Blu-ray and DVD release commentary.

Audio Commentary with cinematographer Dean Cundey- The cinematographer for Halloween, Halloween II, Escape from New York, Big Trouble In Little China, and The Thing discusses his work with John Carpenter and specifically his work on The Thing. This man’s career is incredible, and this track is very cool to have available.

Audio Commentary with Co-producer Scott Cohen- Another new commentary with the co-producer of the film. 

Overall scores

Video – 5/5

Audio – 5/5

Supplements – 5/5

Overall – 5/5

The Thing is one of the greatest horror films ever made and one of the best films by John Carpenter. Thankfully the film has continued to gain stature over the years after catching some flack upon its initial release.  Obviously, Shout!Factory get it. They have provided an absolutely overwhelming amount of supplementary features, a fantastic video transfer from a 2K scan, numerous great audio options, and numerous commentaries. They truly fill the special features disk to the brim. It’s amazing. For myself, this is in the running for the best Blu-ray release of the year (2016.) If you are a fan, you should be incredibly excited. If you have never seen the film, I highly recommend it.

Note: I was lucky enough to get to ask John Carpenter five questions in conjunction with the release of this film. As a fan this was a huge thrill. The interview is available on the site.

Portions of this review originally appeared on Blu-ray Authority.