10 WTF Horror Movie Scenes Inspired By Real Life
1. The Blood Test - The Thing
John Carpenter's The Thing plays host to many unforgettable scenes, but perhaps none more so than the iconic blood test, where MacReady (Kurt Russell) contacts hot copper wire on all of the surviving team members' blood samples to see if any react (thus indicating they're hosting The Thing).
It's a deliciously suspenseful and fiercely original sequence, albeit one which Carpenter confirmed to be inspired by the 1980s AIDS epidemic in the movie's DVD commentary.
Carpenter, a filmmaker with a fondness for social commentary, used the blood test scene to draw a parallel with the AIDS panic of the era, where men in particular were fearful of a disease which didn't announce itself visually, and which an undetectable, highly contagious monster served as the perfect metaphor for.