The Thing. 1982. USA. Directed by John Carpenter. Screenplay by Bill Lancaster, John W. Campbell Jr. With Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, T. K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart. 4K DCP. 109 min.
John Carpenter’s reworking of the Christian Nyby (and Howard Hawks) sci-fi horror classic from 1951—itself based on the same John Campbell short story, “Who Goes There?,” that inspired Ridley Scott and Dan O’Bannon’s Alien a few years earlier—is a deeply disturbing tale of uncanny doubling and alien possession set at a scientific research station in Antarctica. While the film is legendary for its gory effects, the plot is pared to the bone and it is Ennio Morricone’s spare and insistently pulsating synth score (clearly influenced by—and an influence on—Carpenter’s own musical compositions) that deepens our sense of annihilating loneliness and imminent doom.