After the last The Thing movie it’s kind of hard to say that another one is really needed, even with Christopher Fiduccia of Screenrant revealing the fact that the author’s version had extra material that wasn’t added in to John Carpenter’s version. It’s very fair to think that Blumhouse might be able to come up with another way to represent The Thing in a manner that could entice people to watch, but obtaining the faith of the people again would be a little difficult no matter how much folks like horror since the prequel to The Thing was a CGI nightmare, and not in a good way, for a lot of folks that wanted to see more of the hardcore gore that was featured in Carpenter’s version since the effects were more practical and didn’t look so rushed and cheesy. That’s the general consensus among a lot of fans at least since personally I thought the prequel wasn’t horrible until it started getting into the mid to late part of the movie where it started to devolve into yet another schlock-ridden scifi monster movie that was put together more for shock and awe value than anything. The original was in fact a great deal better since it had a much better cast, a story that wasn’t already widely known, and effects that for the time were still kind of ‘meh’ in some places but were still absolutely horrifying since it took people by surprise in a big way.
It could be possible for Blumhouse to outdo the original, but it’s an uphill climb at this point since one thing that the original will always have no matter that the upcoming remake will have added content that hasn’t been seen yet, is the element of surprise. Face it, when The Thing came out with John Carpenter at the helm and Kurt Russell playing the grizzled hero it wasn’t really what people were expecting but it became something that a lot of fans have rallied around since. The original movie was the type that made audiences jump and wonder just who was who and what was what when it came to those on screen since a shapechanging alien that devours its prey in such a manner is a truly terrifying thing that ranks right up there with Alien in terms of how frightening it really is. At the very least with a xenomorph a person knows that the creatures, despite being insanely stealthy, aren’t going to be able to mimic the appearance of anyone else they might know. A xenomorph is out to do one thing, kill, while the creature in The Thing was out to blend in and then assimilate as many as it could while replicating itself and creating more of its kind along the way. Now that’s terrifying since much like Invasion of the Body Snatchers one had to be aware that not everything was as it appeared, while with The Thing it didn’t matter if people noticed or not, eventually the creature was going to do its best to overtake as many individuals as it could in order to complete whatever conquest it had in mind.
Right at the moment giving this movie a remake does sound problematic despite the excitement that it’s bound to cause, and it has a lot to do with the idea that it’s going to disturb some of the long-time fans that have been right there to defend this movie when anyone decides to talk about it. Granted, a lot of people might come around when they hear that there’s more material that could be used from the actual novel and that it could possibly go in a different direction that might be just as enticing, but there will still be those diehards that want to hold onto the idea of the 1982 movie as canon since it’s what they remember and what they feel comfortable with. One thing that could possibly get people to change their stance, if only a little bit at least, would be possibly include Kurt Russell for a cameo or a supporting role, perhaps make him one of the old-timers in the movie that doesn’t play the part of the hero but instead becomes a victim. It would be a switch for a lot of people but including him in some way does sound as though it could benefit the movie in a very positive manner since he and Keith David, who might also be enticed to return, hopefully, would be great additions to the movie since really the greatest question about the movie is what happened to MacReady and Childs when it was all said and done. Bill Bradley of Huffpost has more on this.
All in all it doesn’t sound like the worst idea that could happen, and Blumhouse is known for making some quality movies. But still, there’s an uphill climb to be considered in terms of pleasing the fans.
Follow Us
