Another Sort of Contagion that’s not COVID: “The Thing”

Once upon a time, JohnCarpenter was not well known. As a grad student studying at the USC school ofcinematic arts, circa 1974, he was working on a 16mm thesis film with an outer-spacesetting. Most of the action took place in the cockpit of a deterioratingstarship searching the cosmos for unstable planets. The bargain-basement budget(about $6000) of the original Dark Star was part of its charm. It wasfunny enough, and appealing enough, to catch the eye of Hollywood’s money men. That’swhy the student film, following some major edits, was turned into a commercialfeature, and Carpenter’s professional career was born.

 I focus on Dark Star becausethe guy to whom I’m married still bears a small grudge. As a young engineerwho liked to tinker, he was persuaded to build the console of the movie’scommand center out of craft-store plastics and electrical switches.  His efforts were much appreciated byCarpenter, who promised him a screen credit for his efforts. He also lent theproduction $50. You guessed it: once Carpenter went Hollywood, the promisesdidn’t get kept. This despite the fact that once he launched a little moviecalled Halloween in 1978, Carpenter was the hottest thing going in thehorror genre.

 But Carpenter’swell-documented stinginess shouldn’t detract from his talent. Horror is hardlymy favorite genre, but—with Halloween approaching—I couldn’t resist checkingout one of his creepier efforts, 1982’s The Thing. This film, as Idiscovered, was hardly an instant hit. Critics were harsh (the Los AngelesTimes called it "bereft, despairing, and nihilistic,” while Newsweeksaid it lost drama by "sacrificing everything at the altar of gore”). Audienceswere no more kind. Though Carpenter’s career suffered, the film eventuallyfound hordes of new fans on video. I agree that it’s grim, but also highlycreative, with eerie visuals that won’t let go of your imagination.

 The origin of The Thing wasa novella called Who Goes There? that first made it to the screen in1951 as The Thing from Another World. Seeing it as a boy, Carpenter wasfascinated.  Then he read the originalversion, which posits that an extraterrestrial life-form has come to earth toassimilate, then imitate, other organisms, including dogs and people. As aresult of this otherworldly invasion, men who encounter “the thing” are turnedinto horrible globs of protoplasm who still bear the remains of humancharacteristics. Part of what fascinated Carpenter, obviously, is the technicalchallenge of replicating these weirdly evolving and very deadly creatures. Thefilm gives special effects pros like Rob Bottin (a Roger Corman veteran,natch!) the chance to combine chemicals, food products, rubber, and mechanicalparts into gelatinous monsters that sometimes replicate the features of the characterswhose bodies they’ve invaded. A full $1.5 million of the film’s $15 millionbudget went into Bottin’s creature effects.

 The other attraction of thisstory is the chance it offers to play out an Agatha Christie-type thriller,with a cast of characters diminishing one by one. The story is set entirely inAntarctica (portrayed here by Alaskan and Canadian snowscapes), among anassorted group of American researchers—a physician, a meteorologist, a biologist, and so on—who live together ina remote waystation. Played by reliable character actors like Richard Dysart,Donald Moffat, Wilford Brimley, and Keith David, they are vividly delineated .. . but it’s never clear who’ll be the next to turn into a monster. We dosuspect that star Kurt Russell will endure, but the film’s bleak ending is sureto take us by surprise.

Happy Halloween! I can’t help mentioning that a new Criterion Shelf blogpostsaluting Roger Corman’s creepy Poe films mentions my Roger Corman:Blood-Sucking Vampires, Flesh-Eating Cockroaches, and Driller Killers as a “highly recommended”look at the world of Corman.

 

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