A quick story: After holding off on the switch to Bluray until a multi-region player released on the market -- I watch a lot of import titles -- I finally took the plunge a few months back. And immediately after my shiny metal box was delivered I took the boy to Best Buy ostensibly for something practical, helpful and approved-of by the lady-friend but really to pick up something to test this puppy out. The deal was this: The boy got to choose something for him, I got to choose something for me. Because he has been well raised and has excellent taste, the boy went with The Nightmare Before Christmas. Me? John Carpenter's The Thing.
The Thing is a movie that every self respecting geek has got to be aware of. It's well-nigh revered in horror circles and considered by many to by the absolute peak of Carpenter's career. But it's also a film that -- despite seeing it in chunks many times over the years -- I'd never actually sat down and watched start to finish in a single sitting. And so after bitching about the state of Hollywood releasing this Hallowe'en season last week it was clearly time to peel off the shrink wrap and give this thing a spin.
To sum up: absolutely brilliant. The Thing is a fantastic piece of storytelling with interesting characters in a harsh but familiar world. And it's more than worthy of the classic tag, because it hasn't aged a bit. The story is timeless, and the themes and techniques used to tell it every bit as effective now as they were on original release. When the ludicrous -- but kick ass -- box set of Ridley Scott's Bladerunner was released a while back I was struck by how the only parts of that film that appeared dated at all were the computer graphics, while all of the practical effects (the models and miniatures and paintings) remained absolutely, one hundred per cent believable and compelling. This is also the case with The Thing and, in my mind, the crowning argument in the case for why practical effects should always win out over digital when possible. They don't age. Sure, when you get a bad model it will always be a bad model but when you get a good one -- and the creature effects here are absolutely spectacular -- it will always remain good. Meanwhile, CGI effects seem to have a realistic shelf life of about five years before they become obvious and clunky.
The moral of this story: There are a whole lot of great films out there waiting to be given fresh life. Go find one. Or, better yet, suggest one to me because the big screen pickings remain slim.