The Thing

What is it about? Mary Elizabeth Winstead (from Final Destination 3) plays paleontologist Kate Lloyd, who is recruited by a bunch of Norwegian scientists to help them dig up an unidentified specimen beneath the ice. Once they dig up the creature, it escapes and soon after, it is realized that this creature has the ability to morph into its prey soon after killing it. It now becomes a battle of who can be trusted or not considering the thing has the ability to morph into anyone, anywhere, at anytime.

The positives: For starters, I really enjoyed the performances in this one. It's not your typical horror movie where the best performances are the ones that can be described as the least awful, I actually believed everyone in this movie in the roles they were portraying. Mary Elizabeth Winstead continues to impress as well, I've never seen her in a movie where she underwhelmed, and here, she was perfect as the paleontologist made of intelligence and ability to be a big badass when the time comes. I also enjoyed several other performances, including Eric Christian Olsen (who is miles away from toxic movies like Dumb and Dumberer) as the assistant of the doctor who recruits Kate.

The Thing also managed to bring some suspense into the formula. Several scenes of the thing unleashing itself are quite disturbing and I actually wasn't sure about who it was taking over, so when it eventually came out (in an awesome way), I was a bit taken back which is something I think most horror movies are missing these days; an element of surprise. The idea of paranoia that is present throughout is also something which I find quite chilling. The idea of not being able to trust anyone even if it's your family or a friend is something I think everyone finds a bit ominous. This movie plays with that idea pretty well in my opinion.

The bad: I don't really have a ton of negatives about The Thing, but one area I felt The Thing was a bit lacking was in the special effects. At times, it had the looks and feel of a video game and well...I didn't pay $1.50 (Thank god for the dollar theater) to watch someone perform a video game on screen. Granted, watching an alien/spider hybrid jumping out of people isn't something I would call realistic, but still, I would like to see it done as realisticly as possible which is an area I feel that The Thing was lacking a bit at times.

Overall: The Thing is a pretty solid horror movie which I feel isn't a remake that destroys the original. The performances are pretty solid throughout, there's some suspense and surprise that will keep audiences entertained and I enjoyed the theme of paranoia and distrust that the alien made the characters go through as opposed to most movies where it's just, "Chase, Attack, Chase, Attack". It's a thing of a different horror movie class.

3/4