10 Sci-Fi Movies That Ignored The Critics
7. The Thing
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%
Metacritic Score: 57
We all love John Carpenter, Kurt Russell and shape-shifting alien monsters from outer-space. In short, we all love 1982's The Thing. So it may come as a surprise that the film was not well received at all on release.
Critics didn't know what to do with The Thing when it landed: The likes of David Cronenberg had yet to come into vogue, and so cold, creepy, nihilistic body horrors were not considered worthwhile cinematic fare when the predominant alien-based sci-fi of the time were family-friendly flicks like E.T. and Star Wars. They hated it. Sci-fi fans hated it. And everyone hated John Carpenter for making it.
In the years since, The Thing has gone on a journey of reappraisal and redemption. It gradually became a cult classic on home media in the '90s, before transitioning to the mainstream in the new millennium. The film is now widely regarded as not only one of Carpenter's best works, but one of the best science-fiction horrors of all time.
Like Marty says in Back To The Future, "Guess you guys aren't ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it."