How is it that a relatively low-key movie set in Alaska featuring a shapeshifting alien with the ability to masquerade in any form also happens to be one of the greatest science-fiction movies of all-time? It's all in the reflexes. So John Carpenter remade '50s B-movie The Thing From Another World in 1983 and in doing so crafted a movie superior to that of the original; tense, paranoid, tight, and endlessly entertaining, the mastery at which The Thing plays out is apparent from the very first scene, which sees a lone mutt bounding across the snowy white desert whilst a Norwegian scientist attempts to shoot him from a pursuing helicopter. This dog is "the thing" of the movie's title, of course: an alien creature gifted with the ability to absorb and transform into anything it comes into contact with. With tension deriving from Ennio Morricone's stripped back electronic score, and led by Kurt Russell's likeable and rugged hero, J.R. MacReady, The Thing remains gripping from the moment it begins to the moment the credits start rolling because Carpenter keeps us guessing. The creature could be anyone, after all. The desolate setting and wonderful cast of characters confirms this as a classic, and it also features one of the best ever ending scenes: "Why don't we wait a while? See what happens."
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
