Movie remake heaven or hell – The Thing vs The Thing from Another World.
This is going to be difficult as The Thing from Another World is one of my favourite movies of all time. Released in 1951, it inspired many other movies over the years to use the same type of plot (group of humans in hostile environment terrorized by monster). Alien is very similar to TTFAW as obviously is The Thing.
Filmed in black and white, TTFAW is set at the North pole where a group of scientists at a research camp discover what appears to be a huge plane buried under the ice. A plane carrying a dog team and a newspaper reporter land to help look for surviors not realising that the survivors might not be human.
Probably the most recognizable name in TTFAW is James Arness otherwise known as Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke. While his name is probably recognizable, he certainly wasn’t as he played the monster/alien. Being 6’7″, Arness brought a size to the creature that prosthetics couldn’t have done convincingly in 1951.
The movie is based on a short story by John W Campbell called “Who goes there?”.
The enclosed atmosphere of the movie in the huts of the research camp heightens the terror as the inhabitants have no where to run from the monster and are forced to face and deal with it.
The movie ends with the newspaper reporter saying the lines “Watch the skies, everywhere, keep looking, keep watching the skies.” This tied in perfectly with the UFO frenzy that was going on in the early 50s.
The Thing is a different kettle of goldfish. More a horror tale than a science fiction story, the monster is not a vegetable like humanoid but a shape changing organism. It arrives at the Antarctic camp in the shape of a dog but soon spreads to the human inhabitants.
The Thing was directed by John Carpenter, a director who had already dealt with science fiction (Dark Star and Escape from New York), horror (The Fog & Halloween) and the small group of people in a nasty situation (Assault on Precint 13). With these credentials, Carpenter made a movie that while borrowing from both TTFAW and John W Campbell’s short story, added horror to make The Thing its own entity.
The lead of The Thing was a John Carpenter veteran in Kurt Russell (Escape from New York), who coincidentially placed Marshall Dillion in a remake of Gunsmoke. Kurt Russel had a great run of movies in the 80s started by The Thing.
Where TTFAW would not go into details of the monster, The Thing showed the monster in various guises, such as a dog whose head splits apart and a disemboded head that sprouts legs. The one of the most memorable scene in the movie is where the survivors are lining up to test their blood to see who is monster and who is human. Truly unexpected and horrific, the scene is unforgetable.
The other memorable scene is the ending when there are simply two survivors left, neither knowing if the other has been infected or not. In a similar vein to the original Italian Job, we are left not knowing what happens, only what might.
To be fair to both movies, they have to be treated as seperate plots and ideas rather than original and remake. The Thing from Another World is a great science fiction movie, of the kind that was produced in the 50s and 60s. A movie that would make a great stage show due to its enclosed circumstances. Its an original that has inspired many.
The Thing is a horror movie first and formost. While situations may be common to TTFAW, the creature/infection and the graphic horror make it a true 80s horror/sci fi flick that still holds its own. A great ending finishes a great movie.
