Okay, so, back in 1982, John Carpenter (dir. of horror smash, Halloween) remade The Thing From Another World (1951), and so unleashed some pretty amazing non-cg special effects set-pieces in which dogs turned inside out and disembodied heads sprouted legs. This was the film that got the playground buzzing in terms of its extreme gore and 'out there' creature design. A prequel to the film is due for release very soon, but it appears to this jaded viewer, that The Thing 2011 is just the The Thing '82 all over again - but with cg augmentation probably undoing all that was properly visceral and grisly about Rob Bottin's extraordinary puppets...
Anyway, this postmodernism-themed post could be about the continuing slow death of the avant-garde in terms of film-making as Hollywood stagnates in a perpetual 'nostalgia mode', as it seeks only to remake and revisit its own back-catalogue, as the levers of capitalism demand bums on seats over art and innovation... But actually, I present to you another example of Barthesian appropriation, as some bright spark strips the dour body-horror from Carpenter's '82 remake, splices it with a pastiche of Sinatra and offers up The Thing - The Musical... Enjoy!
Factoid - 'The Thing from Another World (1951)' can be seen playing on the tv in the film 'Halloween (1978)' also by John Carpenter. I'm not sure if at that point he knew he was going to being making The Thing (1982) or not? Either way its an interesting fact.
ReplyDeleteThe Thing (1982) is one of the most visually disturbing films I remember watching from that period. Even today and dispite aging special effects it still manages to disturb me. Like all good horror/sci-fi its the idea of the happening that manages to get under your skin.
I'm scared that the 2011 version is going to be a straight up and down remake too. If it is, hopefully the studio will be smart enough to bring something new to the table whilst still managing to keep some of that rawness that came from the effects being physical. Lets hope!
I really hope they don't ruin John Carpenter's version...one of my favourite 80's films :(
ReplyDeleteThis post is exciting.
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