The Thinnng

I'm going to start off with how much I love the spider head.

 

And it reminds me a lot Krum from "Ah! Real Monsters."

I have never seen this film and it sure was a treat so close to Halloween. I thoroughly enjoyed it: the setting, the monster, the cast.

I will admit I felt a few scenes dragged on a bit long, and the choice of sound effects in the long scenes made it feel a bit longer. For example, I don’t think the howling wind in the beginning with the helicopter chasing down the malamute was engaging or interesting, and I was starting to get confused as to how these guys were failing to shoot it and it was off-putting. I suppose it is an example of how I was not buying into the “danger” of the situation. In hindsight, I really like how it all plays together and how the beginning shows how the whole story panned out for the Nords. It also shows how the Nords were also just trying to stop the Thing from spreading. I still think the beginning could have been presented better with the same effect.  I also could not figure out why the dog was over at the Norwegian camp in the first place, or if it was one of their dogs that just decided to run in the direction of the next closest camp. The American camp protects the dog like it is one of their own. I think this ended up being one of the plot holes for me, and it was one that the story could do without because they end up looking for and bringing back the frozen Thing to the camp. I don’t think the dogs needed to be in the story at all, really. But I will say that the dog part of the monster was my favorite. It also reminded me of the Xenomorph baby when it pops out of the chest.

We discussed what it takes to depreciate the scare factor of a monster, and I think the Thing is an excellent example of a monster that just stays a scary monster. Its M.O. is to adapt and change, so really we’ve never seen the Thing’s final form. It learns and hides. The potential for the monster is limitless and I think that is the biggest scare factor for this monster. I just want to know what it would look like after it has devoured and adapted to every living organism on the planet. Probably a really badass monster. End of the world type of scary.

Another thing that I really liked about this story was that the ending is rather open. It isn’t a happy ending for anyone, including the Thing, and the audience is left wondering whether the Thing has really been defeated. I like to think that it wasn’t, and that the Thing is just diddling around waiting for the next living thing to come by. It’ll happen eventually. We all know it! I also like that the last two standing hate each other, don’t trust one another, and we’re not really sure if they’re both Thing-less.

 In the end, I really enjoyed this movie. I felt it was fun to watch, the monster makeup and design was excellent, and the scare was left to the monster and the feeling of “what’s going to happen next.” I think this is a movie that is best left alone, although I know there is a remake or sequel of some sort, mainly because one of the reasons I feel it is effective is because of the unhappy/open ending. It is a good example of how we know there has to be more to the story, but the ending still acts as closure. Even if the Thing is dead there, it might be somewhere else out there.