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Dom Robinson reviews

The Thing

Man is The Warmest Place to Hide.

Distributed by
Universal Pictures UK

Cover HD-DVD:
Blu-ray:
DVD:

Cover I've never seen The Thing before, despite it being many years old but it's one of a few HD-DVD discs I've got, and yes, I know it's technically a dead format but you can get still a HD-DVD player for an Xbox 360 for less than £20 and the discs themselves start at only a few quid on Amazon, so they're often cheaper than the DVD version itself, and if there's a Blu-ray version also available then you'll find the quality indistinguishable.

It's the winter of 1982 in Antarctica and something has crash-landed onto Earth, but the residents of the U.S. Antarctica Research Program outpost have got more to worry about first as a Norwegian helicopter has just landed, after taking pot-shots at their dog along the way. One of the pilots died as a result of a grenade mishap which also took out the chopper, while the other one went crazy-ape with his rifle until he was put out of their misery by Garry (Donald Moffat).

It turns out they were 2 men from another outpost, of ten men, leading MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Dr Copper (Richard Dysart) to go and check out what happened to the rest of them. They find the place seemingly abandoned until they find one man grossly murdered, something that looks like a massive block of ice from which they must've chipped out the fossil of something or other and some charred remains outside but of what exactly? Either way, they bring it back home.

Before it can be identified, strange things are afoot in the dogs' kennel, for sure, as one of them has just grossed out in the most unpleasant way possible, then part of it escapes just prior to the host being torched. Not good for morale in a place a thousand miles from anywhere!

The Thing is a film I hadn't seen before but had always heard good things about and I was not disappointed. The special effects show off some very inventive gross stuff and it's refreshing to see a total lack of CGI, although no doubt if the film was being made today that's all it would use. Still, here it manages to play on the tension by not showing the 'thing' too often, almost like the original Alien.

Director John Carpenter is a master at filling the 2.35:1 widescreen frame perfectly and this movie shows no exception. That said, there's bit of a gritty picture in the bright outdoor scenes, which is disappointing, but seeing as the rest of the film is fine I can only assume this is a problem with the original print. For the record, I'm watching on a Panasonic 37" Plasma screen via an Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive.

The sound is in Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 and DTS 5.1, although I only have access to the latter. However, it sounds perfect for the moments when the monster does appear, along with explosions and DTS 5.1 and is well-used not only during shootouts but for the aforementioned whizz-pan shots, various other split-surround effects and dialogue is clear throughout.

When it comes to the extras, the main one is an 84-minute documentary (in 4:3), entitled The Thing Takes Shape about the making of the film with comments from Carpenter, plus many key cast and crew members. Oddly, given its length, this isn't chaptered at all.

Most of the rest of the extras are endless text screens and occasional photos, but three brief segments contains both frame-by-frame and full-motion content:

  • The Saucer (2:20): several versions of the huge spaceship coming towards the camera at the start, followed by various blue-screen shots of it post-landing.
  • The Blairmonster (0:58): just showing the monster at the end.
  • Outtakes (4:06): a few scenes in 4:3.

Finally, there's a Trailer (1:53) in 4:3.

The menu plays against a a short piece of incidental music playing over and over. No scenes from the film, just a dull Universal logo. Chaptering is spot-on with 37 throughout the movie and subtitles are in English and Japanese.

FILM CONTENT n
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2010.

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