Universal’s The Thing, suggested by, or a remake of or prequel to, John Carpenter’s 1982 picture of the same name, is better than expected. The Carpenter version, wasting Kurt Russell’s talents in a forgettable bore, apparently picks up where this new movie drops off. Both are based on a 1938 novella (Who Goes There?) that led to Howard Hawks’ 1951 science fiction horror classic The Thing from Another World with James Arness (Gunsmoke).
All three films deal with the theme that civilization is under siege from an evil invader that seeks to destroy while hiding in plain sight. That the sinister force is enabled, sanctioned and appeased by those who choose to deny, ignore, and evade the existence of evil is part of what makes it relevant. One lone voice, an enlisted young scientist named Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), speaks out against the rising threat in an Antarctica outpost where an alien and its ship encased in ice have been discovered by a Norwegian team. Winstead is perfect as Kate; strong and determined without becoming a tank-topped cliche like Ellen Ripley in Aliens, and her role and performance power the movie, though Jørgen Langhelle steals every scene he’s in as Lars, a grunting Norwegian who barely speaks English. The two form a silent bond as the mysterious creature crawls its way into mens’ minds and bodies like a ninja or, more aptly, someone slipping into the Western way of life in order to blow it up. Lars has the brawn. Kate has the brains. Together, with a few allies, they aim to kill the thing.
The rest of the team, to various degrees, hasn’t a clue that they’re under attack, even when faced with evidence that they are. “You’re not here to think,” the lead scientist tells Kate when he dresses her down for thinking for herself and challenging his authority in the presence of others, and he means it. With a sparse, icy blue setting, director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. deftly dispenses with music in crucial scenes, heightening tension, and the horror stems from character-driven buildup, not merely shocks, though those spring forth, too, and viewers are hereby forewarned that some of the scenes are intense and, in particular, extremely grotesque (though bear in mind that this is coming from someone with low tolerance for the grotesque). The Thing has problems, such as why the band doesn’t alert the military and government upon the discovery, and the ending trails off too easily, but Kate evolves from gung-ho explorer to skilled torchbearer demanding that the enemy “show yourselves” and insisting on trusting her own judgment. When someone tells her not to fret because the monster has nowhere to go, she knows better: “Yes it does,” she replies. With solid horror storytelling and a strong lead, The Thing rates higher than most in the dark genre.