10 Failed Movies That Only Found Their Audience On TV
10. The Thing (1982)
Like Big Trouble In Little China and They Live, John Carpenters remake of the 1951 original was trashed by critics (Vincent Canby called it a foolish, depressing, overproduced movie) and ignored at the box office, yet still went on to become a cult classic. Overshadowed by the release of ET: The Extra-Terrestrial two weeks earlier, The Thing debuted at #8 at the box office and spent only three weeks inside the top ten, earning little more than its $15 million production budget. If you watched the picture on network television, however, you saw an edited version shorn of violence, gore and profanity, with added voiceover and a pointless alternate ending that recycled footage from earlier in the movie. It was enough to send fans scurrying to the rental version, where they saw Rob Bottins effects in all their uncut glory - and immediately resolved to become filmmakers. Famous fans include Robert Rodriguez (who references the movie in Planet Terror) and James Gunn (check out the store owned by R.J. MacReady in Slither).
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
