The Thing

Over the previous weekend I sat down and watched The Thing. As far as scary movies go, this is considered one of the greatest of all time, and for good reason. The camera work, editing, and mis en scene all come together to make this a suspenseful, creepy horror flick. The story revolves around a group of men who are stationed in Anatartica and have no way of leaving for the time being. Everything is going along normally until the crew uncovers a shape-shifting alien that can perfectly take the form of anyone or anything in the station after killing the person or thing. Thus begins a horrifying movie in which the team must fight off both the monster, paranoia, and the cold in order to stay alive and sane even as the crew is slowly picked off. While this premise sound very b movie-esque it is truly saved by the tight camera work and editing used by John Carpenter. The camera in this movie is generally held pretty tight and doesn't pull away from the characters into a longshot too often unless it is to show a person or a group of people isolated against the backdrop of the tundra. This adds to the sense of isolation and claustrophobia by never fully letting the audience become acclimated to the surroundings. The film also makes use of practical effects instead of CG, meaning all the monsters and gore are crafted by hand instead of being added later on the computer. These effects often times only look scary from a select few angles. Despite the movie being thirty years old the effects rarely (last scene not withstanding) look fake or cheesy even when they are being shown close-up. The mis en scene is also incredibly good for this same reason. The editing in this movie is superb. Which characters are indeed aliens and those that are human are kept in question throughout the entirety of the film because you don't get to follow every character at every moment through the entire film. Even the main character could be an alien because he leaves the screen momentarily and the scenes shift to supporting characters. All in all The Thing is a great movie that makes great use of film techniques to amplify the experience.