Today's movie of the day = The Thing From Another World. This one is where the John Carpenter film, The Thing, came from. It's based on a book titled Who Goes There. Out if curiosity I looked up which version is the most accurate to the writing and it's the Carpenter version.
I looked up the information at the story here, while having some similarities to the other film, is also very different. One of the biggest being that the Thing doesn't take over the form of anything. Instead it is just a blood-drinking creature with a very different biology.
It's hard not reviewing this one without comparing it to the excellent of the 80s film. Knowing how good it can be makes me look at this one with more skeptical eyes. Had I watched it by itself without the other film I likely would have liked this one more.
That being said, by itself it did have some good things. It still came down to an us vs. them mentality. The biology of the creature brought the story in a whole different direction.
My biggest complaint, like I've had with many films from this era, is that the pacing is so slow. It took over half of the film to get to the point where they brought the Thing back from the ice. During this time they just filled it with unnecessary scenes. There was only a little bit of character building and it's hard to tell one person from the other. The scientist was the only one who stood out, mainly because he sported a goatee. :)
The other complaint I have is that the Thing is only in the film for maybe five minutes, at most. If they aren't going to have it take on the form of a host, it would be nice to at least see it every once in awhile.
Oh, and again, safety was NOT a priority on set! OSHA would have had a field day with the fire scene!
It really wasn't a bad film, but it made me want to watch the Kurt Russell version again. That one builds the tension the entire film and the special effects are top notch.
As a standalone I would, at least partially, recommend this. Knowing the 80s version exists, however, I'd much rather refer a viewer to that one and skip this one.
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