Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4112 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-10-06
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Czech
• Dubbed in: Italian, Polish, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 104 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
John Carpenter's apocalyptic The Thing was released in cinemas just two weeks after E.T. in 1982. The two movies could hardly have presented more contrasting ideas about extra-terrestrial life, and it was Carpenter's uncompromisingly bleak vision that lost out at the box-office. But his audacious remake of the Howard Hawks 1951 B-movie The Thing from Another World has since been acknowledged as a classic in its own right, not only for its pioneering makeup and special effects techniques, but also for its bold treatment of an alien "infection" that eerily foreshadow s AIDS-inspired blood contamination scares. Whizzkid Rob Bottin was responsible for the surreal and stomach-churning make-up effects that are so crucial a part of the film's success--without his utterly convincing creations Carpenter would never have been able to make a monster movie without a "man in a suit"--and filming on a glacier in British Columbia ensured the complete authenticity of the Antarctic setting. Kurt Russell leads a strong all-male cast who powerfully convey their isolation and distrust of one another--in more ways than one this is a film about alienation. The uneasy atmosphere is enhanced by an icily monochrome score from Ennio Morricone, as a series of unforgettable horror set-pieces lead to a wonderfully downbeat finale.

On the DVD:: The bonus features are exemplary, notably the excellent 80-minute documentary, "Terror Takes Shape", which covers all aspects of the production; and the relaxed, friendly, informative commentary by director John Carpenter and star Kurt Russell--a model for how all commentaries should be. There's also an outtakes reel with some tantalising stills of unused footage. Text and stills-based montages illustrate the location design, conceptual artwork and various other aspects of the production. The sound mix is Dolby 5.1, although the non-anamorphic widescreen picture is not all it could be. --Mark Walker

Video Description
DVD Special Features

80 minute original documentation location footage
Running documentary with Kurt Russell and Director John Carpenter
Outtakes from the film
Cast production notes
Storyboards and conceptual art
Location Design
Production archives
Production background archives
Original theatrical trailer
Production notes
Post production
Menu Music
Cast and filmmaker's notes
Language: English/French/Italian
Subtitles: English/French/Dutch/Portuguese/Swedish/NOrwegian/Finnish/Danish/Czech
Running Time: 104 mins approx
Ratio: 2.35:1

Synopsis
Based on both the short story by John W. Campbell, Jr. and the 1951 film produced by Howard Hawks, THE THING is John Carpenter's stunning masterpiece of horror. A group of weary scientists enduring the winter in an isolated camp deep in Antarctica chance upon an alien spacecraft buried in the ice. Near the strange craft is the body of an alien being, frozen solid. Thinking they have made the find of a lifetime, the scientists bring the alien body back to camp and thaw it out. The alien awakens, not in the best of moods, and proceeds to take over the identities of the scientists, one by one, body and all. Helicopter pilot MacCready (Kurt Russell) must lead the surviving men in discovering who among them is human and who is not and how they can destroy "the thing" before it takes them all and moves on to the heavily populated mainland and the rest of humanity. Rob Bottin supplies the awe-inspiring special effects of the creature in its many, ever-changing forms. The effects were groundbreaking at the time and hold up flawlessly over the passing years. But Carpenter does not rely solely on special effects, utilizing his spectacular cast, which includes Wilford Brimley and Richard Dysart, to create three dimensional characters enduring an unthinkable situation. The score from Ennio Morricone is understated, yet increases the tense mood tenfold. Shooting was difficult and done in below freezing conditions, but despite the discomfort the cast and crew produced a truly terrifying film that will stand the test of time. THE THING is surely one of Carpenter's definitive films and a true horror classic.

Customer Reviews

More Carpenter than him you die
This film is a sort of Matrix for many modern films about aliens. It has antecedents for sure but they did not have enough special effects and big enough budgets enabling them not to show the zipper in the back of the monsters. The original element is the location: the Antarctica. A place that has been re-used since by a certain Predator when he met with some Aliens of a more recent generation. There, if an alien life form that can penetrate any living organism and take it over completely appears it can disrupt any human group so much that they will self destroy in order to destroy the alien thing forgetting that anyway the alien form can survive even centuries of glaciation because it is not human or animal and hence it is not even sensitive to cold. The alien is always the winner and it will sooner or later manage to learn how to be patient, penetrate a living organism and stay rampant in it long enough to be taken to real society, to millions of people concentrated in small areas That's the idea of the film. And it ends the way it has to end. Two apparently human beings are still alive. One is contaminated, probably not two, but they are going to die of cold in their human form, their human organism. Carpenter even makes one black and the other white and the circumstances he uses makes the black one dubious, suspicious, whereas the white one seems to be the normal one, but who really knows? The alien or aliens will go dormant in the cold, in hibernation. There is no escape, no end. Our human world is bound to be taken over not by more intelligent beings but by biologically more advanced life forms. And we may wonder if our intelligence will be enough to compensate for the handicap.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Beware - non-anamorphic picture
This is a classic sci-fi film and arguably the best film that John Carpenter or Kurt Russell have ever made.

To modern viewers some of the special effects may look dated now, but they were state of the art at the time. Regardless, there are still some genuinely tense/scary moments in this film.

But I can't understand why so many people have given it a "perfect" 5 stars when the picture on the DVD is non-anamorphic and this results in a tiny image in the middle of your TV screen.

Great film? yes, great DVD? no!

Great down beat finale
Director John Carpenter and special makeup effects master Rob Bottin teamed up for this 1982 remake of the 1951 science fiction classic The Thing from Another World, and the result is one of the best movies of the 1980's. No doubt about that.
"The Thing" has a wonderful atmosphere right from the beginning, when the director establishes the vast isolation of Antarctica with some stunning shots. From there, he draws closer and closer in, with some actual horror mixed with well-done suspense (highlight = a dog that splits open and blossoms into something gruesome). An added bonus: the glimpse at the technology of yesteryear, especially the computers and boomboxes. All the actors are well-chosen and create defineable characters and the fate of each comes as something of a shock. Carpenter even preserves the original opening of the movie he's remaking. Unfortunately, lately, I have to say he's rather lost his touch.
PS. the sound track is excellent.