Tag Archives: The Thing

Hottie of the Day: Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Posted on by Arleigh

MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD

With this being horror-theme month here at Through the Shattered Lens I thought it was time for another “Hottie of the Day” entry and one who has some experience atbeing a scream queen in horror films these past couple years.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is better known for the role (perfectly cast and played) of Ramona Flowers in Edgar Wright’s wright’s film adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, but she has done quite a bit of work in the horror genre. One of her earliest films was as the lead in Final Destination 3. Then she has followed that up with roles in Quentin Tarantino’s half of Grindhouse as a naive young actress being stalked by Kurt Russell’s psychotic stuntman in Death Proof. Her last couple films have also been in the field of horror as she had major roles in both The Thing prequel and the fantasy horror mash-up this past summer with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Ms. Winstead has become a favorite of genre fans and not just for her All-American girl-next-door look, but for the fact that she has talent as an actress and makes the most of every role she plays even in films that critically fails. Of late her work has gotten her noticed as a contender for the end of the year awards for best performance in a film with her performance as Kate Hannah in the comedy-drama Smashed.

Whether she wins awards later this year or not, here’s to hoping that she doesn’t stop doing genre projects while moving on towards more serious work.

PAST HOTTIES

Poll: Which Films Are You Most Looking Forward To Seeing In November?

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last month, at this time, we asked you which four films you were most looking forward to seeing in the month of October.  The results are in and it appears that October is going to be all about The Thing, Footloose, The Rum Diary, The Skin I Live In, and The Ides of March.  Thank you to everyone who voted.

Here’s November’s poll.  As always, you can vote for up to four films and write-ins are accepted.  So, let us know — which films are you looking forward to seeing in November?

Trailer: The Thing (prequel) Red Band

Posted on by Arleigh

One of the films which I’m looking forward to with some trepidation, but also some excitement is the prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing that was released in 1982. This prequel will show the initial unearthing of the “Thing” from the Antarctic ice by Norwegian researchers from the 1982 film (shown only as video recordings) and how it got loose and destroyed the Norwegian Camp.

Dutch filmmaker Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. was the one picked to direct the film with Mary Elizabeth Winstead (known by many as Ramona from Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) taking the lead role. Many fans of the Carpenter film feel this prequel should never have been made. As a hardcore of the Carpenter film I can’t say that I agree with the decision to create this prequel, but I also won’t say that I’m not looking forward to it.

There had always been noise to create a sequel to Carpenter’s classic and at times even the master himself was involved in trying to get it done. This prequel became the final stab at continuing the story first started by Carpenter and I’m interested in how this new cast and crew will tell a story only hinted at in the original film.

The Thing is set for an October 14, 2011 release date.

Trailer: The Thing “Prequel” (Official)

Posted on by Arleigh

If there’s one film which genre fans have been up in arms about being remade it would be John Carpenter’s The Thing. It’s one of those films which just continues to gain a loyal and zealous following despite being a major flop in the box-office when it was first released in 1982. One way producers were able to drop the remake idea was just to set a film as a prequel to the Horror Master’s classic sci-fi horror.

Using a screenplay by Eric Heisserer (which used elements from Ronald D. Moore’s own script for a possible prequel/sequel), 2011′s The Thing will be a prequel set on the ill-fated Norwegian Antarctic Research Station. Dutch-filmmaker Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr. will be doing the directing duties with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton and Ulrich Thomsen leading a cast half of which are Norwegian.

The film has been in production since March 2010 and was suppose to have a 2010 October release date. Problems either with the film’s post-production or just problems within Universal Pictures shelved the film for almost a year.

The Thing definitely looks to use Carpenter’s Steadicam and minimalist-style and the trailer shows scenes that seemed lifted right out of Carpenter’s own film. Maybe it was how the trailer was cut, but it also seemed to have more jump-scares than the ’82 classic. Some people will never accept this film even without seeing the final product. I, who consider Carpenter’s film one of the best films ever made in that era, will give this film a look-see before making a final judgement. I thought remaking Dawn of the Dead was going to be a disaster, but that film more than lived it to it’s predecessor and was very good on its own merits. I hope Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr.’s prequel also does just as well.

The Thing is set to have an October 14, 2011 release date.

Site Review’s of Carpenter’s The Thing: Arleigh’s and Leonard’s

Quick Review: John Carpenter’s The Thing

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

When I was little, my family used to have this cable service called WHT. I can’t remember what it stood for, but recall that it was a one channel station that would constantly show movies. It was like Starz for anyone who didn’t want to pony up the extra money for actual HBO at the time. Since it was set up at my Grandparents house (where I lived), sometimes we’d all gather around for a Movie Night on Saturdays. This is something my family’s done often during the years, and the current part of my family does this on Sundays now, premiering films we haven’t seen yet.

It was one of these Saturday nights that I first witnessed John Carpenter’s The Thing. I had to go to bed for it, being as young as I was for the film, but with the door open I could hear the music and sounds from my bed. At one point, I climbed out of the top bunk and snuck to the stairs, watching the film in my PJ’s. My family would get pretty engrossed with movies, so they never bothered to glance in my direction. After all, this was the first time any of them were seeing this film, and they all loved the original.

I was doing fine until that Husky’s head split open. If I just kept my mouth shut, I could have seen the whole film. After that, I couldn’t stop screaming, “Omigod! The doggie!!” I was met with cries of “Go to Bed!!” from just about everyone. Even though I climbed back into bed, there was no way I was able to fall asleep. Every gunshot, every yell caused me to bundle myself under my blankets with my eyes wide open.

Since then, The Thing has become a family favorite, a reliable go to film for any time it’s cold or rainy or dark. I even showcased it for my friends in Oregon who hadn’t seen it before and they also had almost the same reaction to that poor dog.

So, what is The Thing?

Other than maybe being John Carpenter’s strongest film (which many will argue, because there’s always a place for Big Trouble in Little China for me), it’s a great example of a work in progress that was just done and put to print. Like Jaws, the film ran into some problems. Special FX member Rob Bottin suffered from exhaustion from working so hard on the film. They had some issues with coming up with the final representation of The Thing that wouldn’t appear too cartoon-like or animatronic. There was even a fire during the taping of a huge effect shot involving a body ripping open because of the chemicals that were put into the latex workup. Even though the movie takes place in Antarctica (which I believe roughly 6 months of night), the film actually has a day and night cycle, having filmed in Juneau, Alaska. On top of that, with all of the money thrown at the film, it pretty much tanked at the box office. As quirky as all those elements are, the movie just works because of both the isolation of the characters, the trust issues that occur as a result of the events, and the claustrophobic space they live in. In some ways, it’s very similar to Ridley Scott’s Alien to me (sans the trust issues), but with much better lighting. The Thing is pretty much a cult classic at this point.

The story of The Thing is boosted if you’ve seen the original The Thing From Another World with the late James Arness, but it’s not a requirement. It starts off with a dog being chased by a helicopter, who manages to reach a Research Outpost in Antarctica, occupied by Twelve members. The crew soon discovers that that things aren’t exactly what they seem, but neither are they. Unlike the original movie, the creature in this film has the ability to absorb and mimic whatever organism comes into contact with (which actually is pretty creepy in its own right, that sense of violation). Trust plays a huge part in the story as the crew fight to save themselves while still trying to keep a close eye on who’s walking among them.

The atmosphere of the film is really augmented by the sound. As old as the film is, the sound quality holds up incredibly well on a surround system. The wind from the snow, bullets ricocheting, the panting of dogs and of course the dripping of blood all sound like someone put a microphone right up to all of them to capture it as best they could. The outpost, as big as it is, actually has a lot of narrow hallways with canisters stacked to the sides in many places, giving the place a cramped feel. Add to that Ennio Morricone’s haunting theme and you’ve got a recipe for horror. I mean, for someone who’s scored fantastic Westerns, one would think that Morricone and a Carpenter film might not gel well, but it really does.

Visually, compared to films today, The Thing is pretty tame for it’s effects, and some (the final rendering of the Thing itself, in particular) can be a little dated, but not so much that you should groan about it. At the time, however, it was considered gory (and I guess when you’re in shock on seeing a dog’s face split open, there’s someone smiling somewhere saying to themselves..”Yeah, that worked right there”).

The Thing marks another John Carpenter / Kurt Russell pairing. Russell’s R.J. MacReady is the figure we follow through the film. It’s through him that we try to make sense of everything going on. In one scene that involves him huddled in a corner with a flamethower and some dynamite, defending himself from his friends, you get the notion that you want to be on that guy’s side. Even if following him means getting blown up to a million pieces, because it really becomes difficult to trust anyone in this film. Paranoia plays a huge role.

The cast is rounded out by a few other notable members. Richard Dysart (L.A. Law, Prophecy) plays Doc Copper, and is actually pretty good here. Keith David (Requiem for a Dream, They Live) plays Childs, who really doesn’t believe in any of that “voodoo bullshit”. Thomas Waites (The Warriors) is Windows, who for me, represents the scared kid of the group. He’s not sure what’s up, he just wants to be away from it. Then, of course, you have Wilford Brimley, who seems to realize the problem but takes measures in his own hands rather telling the others just how bad things could get.

Overall, The Thing is highly recommended. I know there’s a remake in the works, and part of me is a little excited for it, hoping that it’s done well. I can’t imagine the filmmakers today running into half of the issues they had in the original.

The Thing also marks one of the best Director commentaries I’ve heard. If you have a chance to watch the film with the Director track on (which I believe Russell also has a hand in with Carpenter in talking about the film), it’s pretty interesting what they elaborate on. Also noteworthy (and funny) is Rob Bottin’s story on the effect sequence that started a fire.  That’s definitely worth a listen.

Song of the Day: Humanity Part II (by Ennio Morricone)

Posted on by Arleigh

Day Three of the week-long horror-themed “Song of the Day” feature brings to us one of the best pieces of film score ever composed. I’m talking about the film score for John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing from Another World. The film just uses the first two word’s in the original’s title and that really says it all.

At first listen one might think that this music was composed by John Carpenter himself (who also happens to be quite the accomplished film composer and who has done the scoring for most of his films) due to it’s similarities to his theme for Halloween and even before that one to his earlier work, Assault on Precinct 13. But one would be mistaken to assume it’s Carpenter doing the composing. For the first time, Carpenter let’s someone else do the film scoring and chose none other than the Italian maestro himself, Ennio Morricone.

He’s already one of the aforementioned masters of film composing by the time he worked with Carpenter on this sci-fi horror classic. Many would remember his work on the Sergio Leone “spaghetti westerns” and many classic Italian cinema. While his entire album for The Thing deserves it’s own inclusion I’ll pick just the one entry in the album which best brings about the theme of horror, isolation, dread and paranoia which made Carpenter’s film one of the best of it’s kind.

“Humanity (Part II)” begins with a heart-beat of a sequence which just continues through most of its running length. It’s a composition full of string playing a very mournful sound with the heartbeat-like bass thump coming in just beneath the surface. Most of the running time for this song gives off a sense of isolation which perfectly melds well with the Arctic setting of the film. This sequence repeats and loops on itself until the very final two minutes when Morricone allows himself to channel Carpenter’s penchant for using the synthesizer keyboard and brings in a very uncomfortable, dissonance made to symbolize the unveiling of the creature in all it’s alien-ness after all the slow, dreadful build-up.

There’s a reason why many film aficionados always mention Carpenter’s The Thing as one of their favorite films and all of it is due to Carpenter’s talent as a filmmaker and editor, but also for Ennio Morricone’s contribution to adding the appropriate atmosphere to each scene. “Humanity (Part II)” definitely ranks as one of the best piece of horror film music ever composed.

The Thing Prequel Casts Its Leads

Posted on by Arleigh

The Hollywood Reporter blog has reported that Mary Elizabeth Winstead has been cast in the lead role of the soon-to-be filming prequel of the classic scifi/horror The Thing. Slashfilm has picked up on this story and I have confirmed with someone involved in the casting process that she has been cast who I trust explicitly.

She will play the role of Kate Lloyd, the paleontologist chosen to travel to Antarctica to help the research team in the Norwegian camp which has found something buried in the Antarctic ice. The casting of Joel Edgerton in the male lead role of Sam Carter, the American helicopter pilot tasked with bringing the character Kate Lloyd to the Norwegian base, rounds out the news on lead casting.

Ms. Winstead has had her share of being part of a genre production (Final Destination 3 and Grindhouse) so she will not be out of place in such a production. She has enough acting skills to balance out her good looks. With the relatively young look of both leads there’s a chance that writer Eric Heisserer may include a romantic subplot between the two characters. I sure hope that is not the case since this film doesn’t really need it to appeal to the audience. Would I be averse to having some sort mutual attraction, even if just hinted at, between the two character? Not at all, but a fullblown romance just for the sake of having it in the story would be the wrong way to go about it.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Review: The Thing (dir. by John Carpenter)

Posted on by Arleigh

In what has to be his best film — even better than Halloween and Escape from New York — Carpenter does a remake of Howard Hawke’s classic 50′s scifi The Thing and actually surpasses the original. Carpenter drops the Cold War-paranoia of the original and instead uses the original John W. Campbell, Jr. short story’s theme of paranoia within an isolated community. The community in question in this remake is an American Antarctic station deep within the frozen wilderness of Antarctica. The station’s crew is comprised of a group of scientists and support personnel of varying background and temperament.

Carpenter’s remake begins with a simple overhead, fly-over shot of an arctic mountain range. The wide-angle shot of icy desolation was compleemented well by the simple, heartbeat-like bass arrangement from well-renowned film composer Ennio Morricone. This opening sequence gives this remake an early sense of isolation, creeping dread and foreboding. John Carpenter begins the film by quickly putting his audience at a state of unease and doesn’t relent until the end credits has completed its crawl on the screen. The Thing does an excellent job of combining Carpenter’s steady, minimalist direction and Morricone’s musical arrangements to create a film of extreme isolation, hopelessness, paranoia and inevitability.

Where the original had an alien that was onscreen very quickly, Carpenter’s alien follows the short story’s version and hides itself by killing and copying members of the arctic team. Throughout the film Carpenter effectively uses this plot device to make each character distrust the other members of the team. Any one of them could be an alien in disguise as one of them. It is only during the most extreme situation will the creature reveal itself. It’s during the tense scenes of mistrust growing within the community that the film excels in immersing the audience in the film’s excercise in terror.

The special effects used in the film is top notch even now. Now CGI was used — this was the early 80′s and CGI was still a decade away. Rob Bottin’s animatronics, puppets and buckets of blood is still a high achievement for its day and still studied by students looking to enter the film effects field. One special scene where his effects are used well is a scene involving a kennel of huskie sled dogs and one alien impersonating as one of the canines. I cringe to think how another remake of The Thing would replace Bottin’s puppetry, animatronics and plain old kero-syrup with CGI. If there’s any film that got it right the first time in terms of FX work, this film is one of the few.

The acting from Kurt Russell and Keith David are top-notch. The acting overall for the entire ensemble cast is very good. The ensemble’s gradual descent into paranoia as they realize just exactly what they’ve got hunting them in their compound is near perfect in its execution. Mid-way through the film, the audience has put alot in stock in caring for these characters. There’s not one throwaway character in the cast and that is rare in an ensemble-suspense film. Performances from the cast were so well-done that it’s quite disturbing to see Wilford Brimley, the Quaker Oats Man himself, gradually go off his rocker as he realizes just what they have hunting them in the camp.

The music score is still one of my favorites to this day. As mentioned earlier, Ennio Morricone’s simple bass and synthesizer compositions are simple, yet adds a palpable sense of tension, paranoia and terror as the film moves forward. Considering that Carpenter always scores his own films, it seemed like a gamble giving over the reins of scoring this film to another. The end result shows that Carpenter gambled correctly.

People who are not big fans of very gory scenes and violence this film is something that they should avoid, but for those who are fans of great filmmaking, this is a must-see. Film students would do well to see a master at work. Now if he can only get back to making films just like this instead of what the studio is handing to him, I think Carpenter still has alot left in him other than more Ghosts of Mars.

The Thing Prequel Starts Shooting in March – ShockTillYouDrop.com

Posted on by Arleigh

John Carpenter’s The Thing is one of my favorite films ever made and I consider it one of the best sci-fi horror ever put on celluloid. There’s been talk for years of making a sequel to the 1982 film. While nothing ever came of it outside of some very well-done and well-written Dark Horse Comics were issued and set after the events of the first film. SciFi Channel even had a tentative plan to film a 4-hour miniseries sequel, but after many delays and obstacles to getting the pre-production beyond the concept stage the plan was dropped.

In the beginning of the new millenium Ron D. Moore of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica (reboot) fame wrote a script which would take place prior to the evtns of the first film. This prequel would tell the story of how the “the Thing” was first discovered by the Norwegian team on Antarctica and the subsequent incidents which would lead into and tie with Carpenter’s film.

I am quite excited that the prequel is going to finally start filming this March and into June. The same studio which financed and released two excellent horror films in the past 10 years (James Gunn’s Slither and Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake), Strike Entertainment, will also be the one responsible for this prequel. Matthijs van Heijninjen will be directing the film from Ron D. Moore’s scriptment with rewrite work from Eric Heisserer.

The question, I am sure fans will have, is will the filmmakers go full on digital, traditional practical effects or a combination of both. If they even go with option 2 or 3 they definitely need to bring in Rob Bottin and Stan Winston’s Effects House to either consult or handle the FX work. Bottin should just be made part of the crew just because he’s Rob Bottin and The Thing was as much his film as Carpenter’s.

Here’s to hoping Heijningen and Heisserer don’t fuck this prequel up.

The Thing Prequel Starts Shooting in March – ShockTillYouDrop.com

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