The Thing (1982)

Name: The Thing (1982)
Released: 1982-6-25
Cast: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, T.K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David

The Thing (1982)

R
1h 48m
1982

85%

age 17+

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Horror-meister John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from New York) teams Kurt Russell's outstanding performance with incredible visuals to build this chilling version of the classic The Thing. In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Once unfrozen, the form-changing alien wreaks havoc, creates terror and becomes one of them.

Director:

John Carpenter

Producer:

David Foster, Lawrence Turman

Writer:

Bill Lancaster

Cast:

Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, T.K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, Thomas G. Waites

Rotten Tomatoes® Score

TOMATOMETER®

85%

Critics Consensus: Grimmer and more terrifying than the 1950s take, John Carpenter's The Thing is a tense sci-fi thriller rife with compelling tension and some remarkable make-up effects.

Reviews

Phoenix Film Festival

Jeff Mitchell

My favorite horror movie.

Few filmmakers understand how to use practical effects as well as the master of cult horror, John Carpenter.

Far surpassing most of the CG work of the time, the practical creature and makeup effects continue to amaze even today.

An amazing adventure that... contains scenes that speak for themselves of the enormous talent of the same person responsible for Halloween. [Full Review in Spanish]

The sheer nastiness of it all had an imprinting effect on a generation of budding cinema buffs. It's one of the first films I can recall seeing that felt like it was trying to hurt you.

January 9, 2020

FULL REVIEW

Common Sense Media

age 17+

Common Sense Says

Gory fear fest is a classic the faint-hearted should skip.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this movie is graphically violent, gory, grisly, and frightening, though it's so over-the-top and dated that the gore is almost campy. Humans and dogs are the victims of monstrous alien beings attempting to destroy them. They are hideously ugly creatures with slimy tentacles, pulsing muscles, jagged teeth, and screeching howls. They imitate other life forms and take over living beings suddenly, turning a beautiful dog into a raving, slathering beast, or a man into a giant, multi-limbed, oozing mass of pus and muscle. The movie has occasional swearing ("f--k," "ass," "d--k," "s--t,") and the leading man drinks whiskey straight from a bottle several times, others drink occasionally, and one character smokes a marijuana cigarette.