10 Horror Video Games That Turned 20 In 2022

While most filmmakers know better than to attempt a sequel to John Carpenter's 1982 horror cult classic The Thing, which was reviled upon release and has since come to be recognised as one of the greatest horror films of all time, the video game industry -- and developer Computer Artworks in particular -- is a whole other kettle of fish.

Released for Windows, Xbox and PS2 in 2002, the third-person shooter survival horror game known simply as The Thing focuses on a US Special Forces team mobilised to the Antarctic outpost from the original film in order to determine what happened to the research team, and of course to fight off the titular ugly.

Putting paid to the cliffhanger ending of the movie, the team find Childs (one of the two original survivors) frozen dead in the snow, and MacReady (Kurt Russell's character) turns up at the game's conclusion to help Captain Blake, the only surviving member of his unit, escape.

While such a definite answer to the film's remaining questions was a risky gambit, it paid off. Carpenter himself endorsed the game, and fans went wild for it, purchasing over one million units worldwide.

A sequel to this sequel was planned, presumably with MacReady and Blake teaming up, but was cancelled when Computer Artworks went bust in 2003.