The Thing Steelbook [Blu-ray]

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Vintage Featurettes From The Electronic Press Kit Featuring Interviews With John Carpenter, Kurt Russell And Rob Bottin (SD) The good news is this new 2160p 2.35:1 transfer offers up a fair and welcome middle-ground between the 2016 and 2017 releases. With a natural film grain texture, there are impressive fine point details in clothing, facial features, and set design work. I’ve seen this film countless times over the last 25 years or so and I felt like I was seeing small things I’d never noticed before. As mentioned, film grain is apparent but well-resolved without ever appearing too noisy, nor is there any sign of waxy DNR or other compression artifacts. Soft shots that have always looked soft - well, guess what, they’re still soft. That’s just the way they are. But close-ups and middles shots look terrific, the gnarly autopsy sequences are still grotesquely beautiful offering up even more fine detail in the fleshy bits. You can really fully appreciate all of the incredible Rob Bottin special effects.

Arrow Video has restored the celebrated sci-fi horror movie “The Thing” in stunning 4K quality and carefully wrapped it in this tantalizing SteelBook® edition. The icy details get an interesting play from the metal canvas and fits perfectly with the dark blue tones in the artwork.The prequel The Thing tried to replicate this lightning in a bottle of tension, fear, and horror. While there are some clever moments to that film, it’s ultimately unsatisfying and unnecessary. Now, Blumhouse is apparently in the hunt to adapt John Campbell’s previously lost full-novel manuscript of the story originally titled Frozen Hell. In the right hands, this could be an interesting take on the story. It’s certainly material worth revisiting, but there’s got to be something unique about it to make it worth the time. I always thought an early 1930's period film with limited technology would be the best way to go. The last thing we need is another useless tired retread. Even if that’s all we get, nothing can take away from John Carpenter’s 1982 classic - or the badass 2002 video game.

The fate of The Thing theatrically is truly one of cinema’s greatest losses. It’s always been a personal favorite, but no matter how well made the film was, its bleakness as a story about isolation and paranoia, of which many metaphors can be drawn out of, just wasn’t going to be able to hold up against the monster hit that was E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. Both are about alien beings, but both are completely different ends of the spectrum, and releasing The Thing two weeks after E.T.’s premiere all but guaranteed that it would fail. Who Goes There? In Search of The Thing an all-new feature length documentary produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures exploring the history of The Thing, from the original novella to John Carpenter’s terrifying science fiction classic. Featuring new interviews with the cast and crew, as well as authors, historians, and critics A research team based out in the snowy wilds of Antartica find themselves beseiged by a terrifying, shape-shifting creature which has found its way into their base. When it becomes clear that the creature can take the form of any organism it so chooses, the tension within the team reaches breaking point any one of them could be… The Thing.You can’t keep a good gory shape-shifting creature buried in the ice for long. Almost thirty years after John Carpenter unleashed his beast The Thing, Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. delivers an interesting and fairly entertaining prequel that is unfortunately undermined by too much source familiarity and rushed CGI work. To be fair there are some smart pieces to this film with strong performances from the cast and it dovetails into the 1982 original, but there’s some measure of authenticity missing. It also deeply hurt John Carpenter, changing the trajectory of his career and, more or less, forcing him to do other types of films, but with less independence and less creative control from then on in. Today, it’s seen as a masterpiece, staying true the tagline framed atop its theatrical poster “The ultimate in alien terror.”

Sounds From The Cold – Interviews With Supervising Sound Editor David Lewis Yewdall And Special Sound Effects Designer Alan Howarth This release also features all of the terrific extras included on the original Scream Factory Collector's Edition Blu-ray release, but not what's available on Arrow Video's release. On Disc Two, there are 3 audio commentaries: one with Dean Cundey, moderated by Rob Galluzzo; another with co-producer Stuart Cohen, moderated by Michael Felsher; and another with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. In addition, there are 2 U.S. theatrical trailers, the German theatrical trailer, the teaser trailer, 3 TV spots, 4 radio spots, and an extensive set of still galleries (behind-the-scenes, lobby cards and press stills, programs, posters, storyboards, and production artwork). Wisely, this version aims to stake out its own corner of the story taking place mere days before MacReady and Copper find the burnt-out Norwegian outpost. The opening may borrow a bit too heavily from 2004's Alien vs Predator for my liking, but it's a serviceable setup. In a nice touch, some of the characters and story beats are practically lifted right from John Campbell’s original story Who Goes There - or Frozen Hell if you're in for the full manuscript version. Even Ulrich Thomsen’s Dr. Halvorson plays like an ode to Robert Cornthwaite’s Dr. Carrignton from Howard Hawks’ The Thing From Another World. There are new twists to the creature’s biology and methods for detection in human form that don’t repeat what Carpenter and his crew did so effectively in 1982. A research team based out in the snowy wilds of Antartica find themselves beseiged by a terrifying, shape-shifting creature which has found its way into their base. When it becomes clear that the creature can take the form of any organism it so chooses, the tension within the team reaches breaking point any one of them could be... The Thing.John Carpenter’s The Thing arrives on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with an excellent native 4K transfer with HDR10 grading. This is a film with a very passionate fanbase who needs to own this in every new and hopefully better version possible. I’m one of those, and with that devotion comes some heated discussion about benefits and detriments to any release. While few would argue that the 2008 disc lands anywhere near the top, the discussion between Scream Factory’s 2016 release and Arrow’s 2017 release certainly was tense, to say the least. Every release of this film has had some plusses and minuses often drawing some hard lines with fans. Truth be told, there isn’t much you can say about The Thing that hasn’t already been said. It’s a technical marvel in every possible away, from the spectacular cinematography of Dean Cundey to the amazing prosthetic and make-up effects by Rob Bottin, as well as additional work by Stan Winston and stop-motion animator Randall William Cook. Not to be outdone, there are also wonderful performances by Kurt Russell, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Wilford Brimley, Richard Masur, and the other men of Outpost 31. There’s also a very moody and effective score, which is a combination of work between John Carpenter and Ennio Morricone that uses atonal cues to create mood and atmosphere, of which there is an enormous amount. All of this combines to create one of the finest science fiction horror films ever made.

The Thing is technically not a remake in the sense of the word, but more of a re-imagining of the original short story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr., which Howard Hawks’ The Thing from Another World was based upon. That original film wound up having not much to do with the actual story, going so far as having the alien just being reminiscent of Frankenstein’s monster. While it worked in 1951 and is still heralded as a sci-fi horror classic, Carpenter’s update eclipses it. Critically panned at the time of its release, John Carpenter s The Thing has rightly gone on to become one of the most celebrated sci-fi horror efforts ever made now newly restored by Arrow Video in a stunning 4K transfer supervised by Carpenter and director of photography Dean Cundey.

Over the years, star Kurt Russell and master of horror John Carpenter have teamed up on a multitude of films (Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from New York to name a few) but of all their collaborations, 1982 s horror/sci-fi amalgalm The Thing surely tops the list. Who Goes There? In Search of The Thing an all-new feature length documentary produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures exploring the history of The Thing, from the original novella to John Carpenter's terrifying science fiction classic. Featuring new interviews with the cast and crew, as well as authors, historians, and critics Much like Carpenter’s classic The Thing, Heijningen’s The Thing wasn’t exactly kindly received. While critics decried Carpenter’s film for being unrelentingly bleak, critics and fans savaged the audacity of crafting a prequel to a now revered Sci-fi/Horror classic. It’s not an amazing film, but I don’t think it deserved the savaging it received when it hit theaters. That said, it's also far from being a masterpiece often landing in that middle ground of frustrating mediocrity and missed potential. After two men in a Norwegian helicopter flew into their camp trying to kill a single dog, the crew of a U.S. Antarctic research station encounters something from beyond the stars. An alien creature capable of infecting and perfectly imitating any living breathing organism. With any number of their team infected by the creature, helicopter pilot MacReady (Kurt Russell) and the survivors of the station must find a way of identifying and killing each imitation before it’s too late. When John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing premiered in 1982 and was mostly rejected by both movie-going audiences and critics, an afterlife on home video was all but inevitable. Beginning with CED, Laserdisc, VHS, and DVD, the film, like several that John Carpenter made that weren’t fully appreciated upon their initial releases, built an avid following, with many in that following proclaiming it to be “the best film that John Carpenter ever made” and/or “the best monster movie ever made”.