The THING Prequel

[TheDingo]

...I saw Matthijs van Heijningen's "The THING" prequel this weekend, and I have to say that it's a pale shadow compared to John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece.

I find it amazing that Carpenter's film made almost 30 years ago without computers ( all the effects had to be practical ) works better on every level: Better story, Better acting, Better direction, Better lighting, Better effects, etc...

This prequel has none of the knuckle-biting tension or freakiness of Carpenter's work, and the characters are so poorly established that I really didn't care for any of them as they are being off'd by the alien beastie.

I also thought the design of the alien was pretty poor, basically appearing in one of two different forms, where in Carpenter's film the alien kept morphing in to something else as the story progressed, so you were never sure what was coming around the corner. ( and Carpenter's alien was all practical effects )

...Ah well, I guess it's time I get around to writing my sequel to Carpenter's "The Thing", which I've had rolling around in my head for the past 20 years.

 

[hendosan]

I think that's pretty harsh. The cinematography and set design is pretty much note-for-note the same as the Carpenter movie, and I thought the effects and alien design were really good and freaky.

The big problem is that this movie suffers from prequel syndrome - it's a story that didn't need to be told and doesn't really add anything to the Carpenter movie. The movie also has a great paranoid and tense middle part that gets ruined once they turned it into a monster/slasher flick for the final act.

 

[drapeama]

The big problem is that this movie suffers from prequel syndrome - it's a story that didn't need to be told and doesn't really add anything to the Carpenter movie.

I watched it with my friend last friday and she hated it, and I enjoyed it. I did probably because I really enjoyed Carpenter's original movie. It never compares with the original, it's never as good, but I liked it. I would have liked a better connection from the Prequel to the Original though, but overall it wasn't that bad.