The Thing
What it’s about:
Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty, and home to an
isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility. When
an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists, the
shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed, has the ability to turn
itself into a perfect replica of any living being.
Paranoia
spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re
infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet. Paleontologist
Kate Lloyd has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of a
lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across
an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism
that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. When a simple experiment
frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot,
Carter, in keeping it from killing them off one at a time. And, in this
vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will
pit human against human as it tries to survive.
What the critics thought:
“It’s the horror equivalent of one of those cheap, straight-to-video animated sequels that Disney’s always putting out: same title, same story, none of the inspiration.”
– Eric D. Snider, Film.com
“The themes of paranoia and isolation are the same as Carpenter’s film, but the effects aren’t a patch on the original.”
David Edwards, The Daily Mirror
“This movie is basically a sno-cone Alien or Predator and we’ve seen nearly a dozen of those.”
– Kyle Smith, New York Post
