About a week ago I finally watched "The Thing". A bunch of people have been telling me I needed to see this movie. Friends and family members have been on my case. I have heard people on podcasts singing its praises. I have heard how ahead of its time, and flat out great this movie is. And with it being date night in October, the only month I will watch vaguely scary movies, it seemed like a logical choice. So we watched.

I have to tell you all, everyone telling me to watch this movie was right. "The Thing" is an incredible movie. Take in the fact that it came out in 1982, this movie was definitely ahead of its time. That is what amazed me most about this movie. The acting is wonderful. The writing is next level. The direction is close to perfect. But it is all the other stuff surrounding this movie that makes it so great. The monster in this movie is absolutely terrifying. When I first laid eyes on it I had to close them right away. I was legitimately scared. I kept saying to my wife, "what is it?!", or "why is it?!". I could not put my finger on what the monster was supposed to be, and that was what made it extra scary.

The effects in “The Thing” were amazing. It worked on every level. It did the job that every monster movie aims to do. I was scared, my wife was scared, the monster achieved its goal. And it looked like it would work today. You can tell that this movie was made in the early 80's, but the monster effects would work now. It was not like other movies that came out back then. Movies with monsters back then looked hokey and rough. Not "The Thing". When the monster first appeared, through a dog, the way it showed itself, and tried to attach itself to other living, breathing things, I was fascinated. The way they showed it spread out and latched on, it totally worked. I bought it. It made sense and it looked good. Then I remembered it came out in 1982 and I was floored. To be this ahead of its own time was truly an achievement. I liked what this movie did on so many more levels than what "Citizen Kane" did. Both are epics, and the movie making world owes a humongous debt of gratitude to both, but "The Thing" is a far superior movie in my opinion.

You add on the other level of horror this movie brings about, paranoia. The paranoia between the guys living in the cabin in the Arctic was truly horrifying. I was, maybe, more scared at the paranoia than the monster. The way everyone starts to turn on each other was wild. When they draw blood to test who may or may not be infected, that was one of the scariest moments in the movie. When Wilfred Brimley, the scientist in the movie, has his computer screen open and it says something about infecting the whole world in record time, with COVID in the world now, it hit home and scared me even more. I am still trying to shake that image. When some of the guys do get infected, the way they transform and everyone else just stares, it was mortifying. But the way they continually turn on one another, it was like a class in paranoia acting. I like scary movies that do stuff like this way more than slasher movies or jump scare movies.

"The Thing" is a classic for a reason. I now understand why so many people were on my case to watch it. It makes total sense. I am a fool for waiting so long. This is why John Carpenter is so respected in the scary movie world. I loved "The Thing". I get it now. Check it out if you have not seen it yet. It rules.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.