MoFo Top 100 Horror Movies: The List

The Thing is a wild reimaging of the Hawks/Nyby 1951 flick and closer in tone to the original John W. Campbell Jr story which is apparently one of the first sci-fi stories about shape-shifters from outer space. At the time of its release, The Thing wasn't really greeted with good reviews, but I've always loved it, and I find it to be Carpenter's masterpiece. It's a lean, mean, fighting machine with almost nothing in the way of wasted scenes and a strong sense of its own capability of holding your interest while taking it's sweet time in building things up. Now, Carpenter has always tried to build his films in a similar fashion, but to me, this is the one where he's far more successful than ever before or since. Maybe it's the exotic location of Antarctica. Who can name more than five films, not including documentaries and cartoons, which take place on that continent? Maybe it's the mind-boggling special and makeup effects which to this day are some of the most-disgusting-yet-witty displays of violent destruction of life ever depicted on film. Maybe it's the combo of the men's camraderie and their contempt of each other because once it becomes clear what the hell this thing is and what it wants to do, it makes the all-male cast want to keep to themselves even though they all would probably like to have someone cover their back if they could only trust them. Both Twelve O'Clock High and The Thing are about men facing impossible odds in an attempt to survive and theoretically help save humankind. In The Thing, there's a computer calculation which states that if the ONE Thing were left to its own devices, it would take over every single living thing on earth in about three years. So yeah, that showdown at the end of The Thing, which reminds me more of John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Dobbs and Curtin betting on who's going to fall asleep first) than it does anything in Hawks' Red River or the original The Thing (Hawks being Carpenter's fave director), is basically about the survival of the human race.
Films like Barry Lyndon and The Shining do seem the coldest Kubricks to me, but Barry Lyndon has an ironic narrator and a truly ironic ending which added layers to the film so that now I don't feel nearly as rebuffed by the film as I did initially. I've related the story here before about how I saw a sneak preview of The Shining with my brother, and we were very disappointed in how one-note the thing was. We didn't find it scary except for a few images, and it went on and on to a changed frozen conclusion which really put us off. Now I can accept it for the pleasures found along the way, and I can forgive Nicholson - he's so funny - for being over-the-top almost from the get-go.
My List
1. Gremlins
2. Poltergeist
3. The Exorcist
4. The Innocents
5. An American Werewolf in London.
6. Rosemary's Baby
7. Alien
8. Psycho
9. Altered Siates
10. The Fly ('86)
11. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
12. Grindhouse
13. The Stepfather
14. Psycho 2
15. Dead of Night
16. Wait Until Dark
17. Carrie
18. The Omen
19. The Thing
20 The Shining
21. Arachnophobia
22. Shaun of the Dead
23. Let the Right One In
24. Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78)
25. Diabolique

~Top 50 Favorite Horror Films~
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17. The Thing (1982)
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I am finally returning from the cold chambers of the underground to pursue my mission to finish this list, after it has been lying in the subzero sceneries for what feels like entire decades. The next name to surface from my kill list is an object only known by the simple and mysterious definition, The Thing. It is said to be crafted by a curious carpenter, and live alongside some kind of humanlike creature, who appears to be even more hairy than the beast itself. The Thing is said to be a very aggressive and loud creature, because of its Western-Italian roots, which you will be able to discover by the way that it sounds. But it would probably be best to stay away from this dangerous beast, though it is a hard thing to do when it is so damn fascinating to watch…

I hope this long-awaited entry to my horror list has been worth waiting for, especially considering it has been such a long time since I posted the last update. John Carpenter’s masterful merging of the science fiction and horror genres is known to be a treasured and well-respected cinematic creation, so I really wouldn’t worry about whether or not it will be a hit between members here. It is, in many ways, a milestone in the movie world, succeeding in creating both bewildering anxiety with haunting minimalism, as well as some gruesome creature feature carnage, using revolutionary practical effects. And in between the blood-pumping excitement and blood-squirting butchery, there are some very confused and panicked characters running around trying to make a sense of it all. It is essentially these characters, which helps balance out the different aspects of the film, and eventually make the movie extremely fascinating and interesting to watch.
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You know those days when you just can’t remember a certain actor, director, writer or whatever? Well, I couldn’t remember exactly who did the score for this film, but I did remember it was someone who didn’t usually deliver such a soundtrack for such a genre. So yeah, I thought it was Hans Zimmer for a moment and made a great introduction, which went hand in hand with the fun carpenter reference I made prior to it. Here it is for those who are interested in reading leftover material — The Thing is said to live in a room owned by a German-Japanese man named Han, wherein it makes these almost orchestral sounds. You will be able to locate said room if you turn left by the glacier with the futuristic appearance, and look for a small building with a door sign saying, “Han’s Zimmer”. But remember; enter at your own risk…
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Why is it on my list?
At times this is a very disturbing film to watch, but nevertheless you just have such a good time with it. Kurt Russell is perfect in the role of the badass creature killer, while the rest of the cast does a fine job as well. I like the unusual score from master composer, Ennio Morricone, and it goes well with the director’s typical style of synthetic soundtracks, though this is much more calm and haunting, which fit the tone of the film perfectly. Ultimately, I just love this film, and it is always a great time to revisit it.

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