All versions of The Thing are adaptations of the 1938 short story “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, which was set in the Antarctic. Carpenter's film was a remake of Christian Nyby's 1951 film version, The Thing From Another Planet, in which a UFO is unearthed near a North Pole research base.
Is The Thing a remake of The Thing from Outer Space?
In this way, Carpenter makes The Thing a successor to The Thing From Another World rather than a traditional remake. While in a strictly narrative sense, the Norwegians are not literally the team from The Thing From Another World, Carpenter's story and camera frame them in the exact same ways.
Taking the form of a prequel, the 2011 revival — also titled The Thing, which isn't confusing at all — explains what occurred at the abandoned Norwegian camp explored by R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Doctor Copper (Richard Dysart) in the Carpenter film.
Two remakes of this film occurred in 1982 and 2011, each with the truncated title of "The Thing". They both occurred in Antarctica as in the original "Who Goes There?" story. It's very interesting that the 2011 is a "prequel" to the 1982 version. The German version shortened some scenes, e.g., Dr.
John Carpenter's The Thing is considered one of the best horror remakes ever made, surpassing the original film in its adherence to the source material and its unforgettable practical effects.
As a revolutionary horror sci-fi film, John Carpenter's original The Thing is held in higher regard than the 2011 prequel for these five reasons. John Carpenter's The Thing released in 1982 to poor reception but has since been revered as a cult classic, ranking among some of the most well-known and best horror movies.
Upon finding John Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing, the two convinced Universal to create a prequel instead of a remake, as they felt that remaking Carpenter's film would be like "paint(ing) a moustache on the Mona Lisa".
The producers convinced Universal Studios to allow them to create a prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) instead of a remake, as they felt Carpenter's film was already perfect, so making a remake would be like "painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa".
The film was about the end of the world. Its bleakness was the reason it wasn't a success at the time, but I think also why it has endured. In fact the film was an enormous failure. I got fired because of it and was out of work for a while, but slowly its reputation changed.
I'm talking about John Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy, a series of thematically related and narratively unrelated movies he made starting with 1982's The Thing, continuing with 1987's Prince of Darkness, and concluding with 1994's In the Mouth of Madness. For horror fans, there's no better way to kiss it all goodbye.
The novella concludes with the humans clearly victorious, but concerned that birds they see flying toward the mainland may have been infected by the Thing. Carpenter opted to end the film with the survivors slowly freezing to death to save humanity from infection, believing this to be the ultimate heroic act.
While Cruise's journey into space was originally planned for October 2021, it has since been pushed back allowing the Russian-made film The Challenge to become the first time a professional actor has been filmed in space.
NASA embraces their legacy and strives to include everyone who wants to participate in ongoing exploration. Hidden Figures is a movie based on actual events.
Scientists now consider it unlikely the universe has an end – a region where the galaxies stop or where there would be a barrier of some kind marking the end of space.
To many horror enthusiasts, John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) is considered one of the classics due to the practical effects and ominous music used throughout the movie, however, many older individuals and critics often oppose this categorization of this film, saying there is no purpose for the gruesome details shown ...
All three of those played a role in the brutal reception that greeted John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), which is today recognized as one of the most effective, shocking, and suspenseful horror movies of all time.
Carpenter has spent the last decade making music and playing a lot of video games, and while you have to respect him as a “King” for doing that, it's a bit of a bummer that it means his last film is 2010's The Ward.
When the movie was finally released, it received mixed reviews and was a box office flop, with some blaming the poor computer effects, and others simply for the story and characters being inferior to the original.
Overall, as a film on its own, The Thing isn't terrible, but it isn't very good either. It didn't amaze me and it didn't do any of the things that a good horror film should. But when you compare it to the 1982 version it is a very bad film. It simply gets everything wrong that Carpenter's version got oh so right.
Other notable examples of films inspired by The Thing are: Dan Trachtenberg's 10 Cloverfield Lane, Neil Marshall's The Descent (both play with the paranoia-fueled, isolated plotline), and Alex Garland's Men (2022), who took inspiration from The Thing when creating the imagery for his final monster.
For context, The Thing 2011 ends with Kate and fellow survivor Carter (Joel Edgerton) walking away from the trashed spaceship, and planning to drive to a nearby Russian research base.
