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Post by svsg on Dec 26, 2008 4:33:10 GMT
The Thing
John Carpenter
English 1982 A mysterious creature attacks life and takes its formThanks to Blibble, I finally got to watch this. As he mentioned to me in some other context, horror films either scare people or not, it depends upon so many factors. It was not particularly scary for me. But it was still a solid movie for me, always managing to hold my attention and interest, except maybe for a couple of instances. The background music and sound are excellent. Those drums and low frequency sounds aid the overall mood. The opening few scenes and the very last shot are amazing, and also a few scenes where the characters have doubts about each other, but somewhere towards the end, it becomes more of pyrotechnics and explosions.
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Blib
Ghost writer
Posts: 623
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Post by Blib on Dec 27, 2008 2:01:01 GMT
What did you think of the monster special effects? The more I see bad CGI monsters in movies these days, the more I love The Thing.
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Post by svsg on Dec 27, 2008 2:20:59 GMT
It was nice to see the non-CGI monster. Especially the first time in the kennel. But what I found slightly funny was the monster walking out of the room like a spider.
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Blib
Ghost writer
Posts: 623
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Post by Blib on Dec 27, 2008 3:43:23 GMT
But what I found slightly funny was the monster walking out of the room like a spider. Haha, that's one of my favorite parts. I liked the reaction from the guys as they watched it walk out the door. Anyway, your review was pretty much what I expected since you aren't a big fan of horror, but I'm glad you liked it as much as you did.
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Post by ronnierocketago on Dec 28, 2008 18:22:30 GMT
I don't believe in the "if horror movie doesn't scare me, it doesn't work" concept.
Sure I argue a similar paradigm with action films (i.e. it should excite you), but horror films just don't frighten or scare me per say. They just don't.
More or less I think of that genre as a glorified sub-genre of the thriller, so basically horror cinema works at best for me as suspense thrillers or dramas or what not.
For example, THE SHINING or THE EXORCIST doesn't scare my pants brown, but they're damn great drama-thrillers, with a family having to survive from their patriarch gone deadly insane, or the Devil posseising a girl.
With THE THING, its a retooling of ALIEN where a small group of people are trapped by their environment (space or Antartica) with a biological creature only doing what its naturally inclined to do to survive, except the difference is that this THING can mimic anyone, and thus this tight knit of guys who work well together if at least to survive the harsh Artic conditions, suddenly go apeshit against each other because that bond of trust is dead, as many of them will become.
Like ALIEN, I think THE THING is a masterpiece of suspense, acting, FX, moody atmosphere, terrific soundtrack, and well-executed finales and epilogue.
THE THING (1982) - ***** - Masterpiece
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Dec 28, 2008 18:38:52 GMT
This is one of my favourite films ever.
I agree, I think that's nonsense. Asigning a film to a particular genre category doesn't mean you can reduce the evaluative process to the question of whether it elicits a single particular emotion in you. You often hear dismissals of 'comedies' and 'horror movies' that are based on nothing more than the claim that "it's not funny" or "it's not scary". Well, you could equally arbitrarily decide that all 'Russian art films' should be hypnotic, and dismiss any that aren't solely on those grounds, or you could replace 'scary' as the sole evaluative criterion for 'horror movies' with something else, like 'shocking' or 'disturbing' or 'nauseating'. It's not just about eliciting a particular emotional response, otherwise you might as well take a hit of nitrous oxide and never watch a comedy again.
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Blib
Ghost writer
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Post by Blib on Dec 29, 2008 5:22:49 GMT
I always have a hard time with that. More so with the horror genre than comedy, but I often compare the two as the hardest to suggest to people because people always dismiss them, like you said wetdog, as "not scary" or "not funny". It drives me nuts because so many movies that I love are considered "horror" but I don't have nightmares after watching them. Being scared isn't a required response to enjoy the films. However, The Thing really did scare the crap out of me when I first saw it. Of course I was only eight years old and for some reason my dad thought it was a good idea to watch it with me while the rest of the family was away. * spoiler* At that age I was into it until I saw the dog split open and all hell broke loose in the kennel. * end spoiler* So, I have some love for the movie for personal sentimental reasons as well. One of those "what the hell were you thinking moments" for my dad showing me that movie at a young vulnerable age when, at that point, all I had seen was cartoons and crap. Hahah.
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Post by svsg on Dec 29, 2008 16:54:54 GMT
In hindsight, your dad was right. See, you are a big fan of this movie even after so many years, not those kiddy cartoons you saw before
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Dec 31, 2008 22:09:27 GMT
I saw the last two thirds of this on TV a few weeks back.
Looked decent.
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Blib
Ghost writer
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Post by Blib on Jan 1, 2009 8:55:02 GMT
Watch the whole thing Mick. The opening third is great! Like svsg said: The background music and sound are excellent. Those drums and low frequency sounds aid the overall mood. The opening few scenes and the very last shot are amazing
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Post by ronnierocketago on Jan 6, 2009 15:57:54 GMT
I saw the last two thirds of this on TV a few weeks back. Looked decent. Its worth a viewing, since its probably Carpenter's best movie.
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Post by arkadyrenko on Jan 17, 2009 18:06:46 GMT
THE THING is one of my favorite films. I don't call it a horror film, i call it a film. Damn it's genre, it's just a great film, period.
And suffice to say, they don't make them like they used to anymore, do they? Well, of course, there's always THE DARK KNIGHT.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Jan 17, 2009 18:38:26 GMT
Please don't sully The Thing with such a vulgar comparison...
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Post by ronnierocketago on Jan 17, 2009 19:37:40 GMT
Please don't sully The Thing with such a vulgar comparison... How about the fact that contemporary American Horror cinema is fucking shitty and not worth any dent of respect from anyone?
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Jan 17, 2009 19:56:19 GMT
That's true. What does it have to do with The Dark Knight? It's the film that 'transcends' its own genre... That's the point of comparison, right? You know I don't share that view. I don't think The Thing is at odds with itself, I don't think it's symptomatic of a "too good for this shit" attitude on the part of the filmmakers and as such I don't think it adopts a self-serious veneer of pat and reactionary social commentaries.
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Post by ronnierocketago on Jan 17, 2009 20:12:51 GMT
That's true. What does it have to do with The Dark Knight? . Nothing at all, I just wanted to rant.
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Post by arkadyrenko on Jan 27, 2009 19:34:41 GMT
I cannot count the ways i love John Carpenter's THE THING. They're many!
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