Like a lot of movies which are formally innovative the initial reaction tends to dismiss everything else because the new element is so radical and different. So it was seen as merely a series of gross out shocks.
I was surprised at how impressed I was because normally, when I see, as you say, "formally innovative" movies, I don't think it's that big a deal because I've seen modern movies do the same things so many times, often in ways I like better. But this was just like, what the fuck, I have never seen anything like this, I don't understand, wow.
Curiously, many horror fans now cite it more as an example of careful story telling, characterization and slow building suspense.
It was definitely good at building suspense slowly and playing with the audience, but I thought the characterization wasn't much better than any other horror movie.
The bigger assessment though is that the movie hits on a particular kind of bleakness that is very hard to shake. It's a freaky dark vision that lingers with you.
It's got that too.
I wonder how the prequel is going to go down.
One big strike against The Thing was that it came out just about the exact time that ET was ruling the box office. Talk about running smack up against the zeitgeist in a big way. It was the Anti-ET in just about every conceivable way.
And I saw ET once in the theater and never again.
Whereas I saw The Thing a couple times in the theater, again on VHS, and own it on DVD.
I saw ET when it came out and hated it. (I didn't like that the scientists were evil. Plus ET rising from the dead annoyed me.) A few years ago I bought a cheap DVD of ET and watched it again. I didn't hate it the second time, but didn't really love it either.
But ET inspired that "Trumpy" movie that mst3k did, so that's something....
Haven't seen
The Thing
in a few decades - need to remedy that.
One big strike against The Thing was that it came out just about the exact time that ET was ruling the box office. Talk about running smack up against the zeitgeist in a big way. It was the Anti-ET in just about every conceivable way.
I should clarify that I meant this was a big reason the movie got piled on by critics and ignored at the box office. I love The Thing and own it. I probably like Kurt Russell's misnathropy here even more than in Escape from New York. Plus, once you've seen this you will never look at Wilford Brimley the same.
Before I forget, I bookmarked this article for you, Corwood.
Transcendental Style in the Cinema of John Ford. Comments are well worth reading also. (For a change.)
Thanks! I read that the other day, actually. Kenny gets on my nerves often (this one, in particular, was freakin' awful, nothing but self-satisfied japery masquerading as criticism), but it's always good to read someone taking Metcalf down.
ET was also the reason Blade Runner tanked at the box office. They opened on the same weekend.
But that's 'Ffista movie discussion no. 23, right?
I saw a double-feature in a theatre of The Thing and Alien when I was ... 9? 10? Around then. Talk about not sleeping for days afterward.
