3. Trusts A Tough Thing To Come By These Days
Carpenters version is a paranoid horror about trust. At the dawn of the 80s, America was still feeling the chill of the Cold War, Reagan was almost assassinated, and AIDS emerged. Suspicion was everywhere - none of these threats carried a visible marker - and The Thing reflected these concerns right down to MacReady telling Blair trusts a tough thing to come by these days. Even Macready himself wasnt exempt of suspicion. Enough doubt is raised to make us wonder if he himself is a Thing. His clothes are found shredded, he leads his partner astray from the safety of the group, and manages to survive impossibly cold temperatures. As a result, the viewer is as in the dark as the characters on screen yet in the prequel there is never any doubt that Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is human and we know whos alien because theyre forever exposing themselves - which nullifies the theme of who can you trust? Instead it has nothing to say and is *just* a monster movie. And it doesnt even make sense which leads me on to: