The Thing (1982) is a movie that is considered by many to be an ultimate classic, pioneering to create tension and atmosphere as well as practical special effects that still hold up to this day. To follow in these tracks and attempt a movie similar to the original The thing might be foolish, but I believe this is not the fault of the director but rather the studio. Below is my long The Thing (2011) movie review.
Many people have mistakenly called this movie a remake, or a sequel. Mainly due to similar names. It is a prequel that tells a story of what happened to the Norwegian crew right before the event’s of John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982). Writer Ronald D.Moore liked the original and thought that remaking it would be foolish so he decided to follow it with the 2011 movie that he called a “companion piece” to the original. Later, Eric Heisserer was brought in to rewrite the story.
The director (Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.) wanted to make a story that was focused on humans and their interactions. This pushes the angle of survival further than just showcasing the creature effects. The director insisted on not showing the alien creature too much, which was an inspiration from original Alien (1979) movie
In terms of actors, the director wanted to have mainly Danish and Norwegian actors. This led to a lot of improvisation. Actors performed Norwegian folk song called Sámiid ædnan. This song that was part of 1980’s Eurovision Song Contest. Due to the barrier between few English speakers and the Norwegian crew, the director wanted to present this as an additional hint of paranoia.
As for the production, the director wanted to be as authentic to the original movie as possible. In order to create a camp that the crew in the original movie found, the production crew endlessly went through the original movie, making sure to note as many details from the movie as possible in order to recreate the camp. As no surviving specs for the camp were available, the director used Kurt Russell’s height as an estimate on how big the camp is supposed to be. From there every little detail such as broken window in the back, axe marks, blood spills were all meticulously recreated. The director had a lot of screen captures from the original movie. He used that as a reference when filming at the camp.
For the creatures the director wanted to use practical animatronics as he believed the actors will react better to something present on the screen. Later in the post production, the studio demanded that the creatures be replaced with digital effects. They also wanted the ending to be replaced as they thought it was too confusing for the general audience. The ending we got is known as “Tetris ending” which replaced the “Pilot ending”.
The reason why i like the movie had nothing to do with the special effects. They were bad because the movie was hyped up to be using practical effects. However, the movie has some solid acting from everybody as well as solid directing. The director recognized the original as a masterpiece so he took liberty to trace the camp look as best as he could to be true to the original. Everybody who worked with him, especially the special effects crew, wanted the movie to be reminiscent of the original. They just wanted to tell the story of how it led to the original story. They didn’t want to compete with the original.
The studios are the ones to blame. They ignored what the fans really liked about the original. It was an obvious mistake as many critics have slammed the movie for having such horrible CGI. Behind the scenes show the creatures as they were intended and they look fantastic. However, the studios often get what they demand, which has worked against them so many times. They remove scenes people liked or edit a movie to fit a PG-13 rating. This ignores the fact that the original story would bring in a lot of fans. See the controversy on Venom (2018) movie.
Thanks for reading my The Thing (2011) movie review
