Film Analysis - 'The Thing' (Directed by John Carpenter)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZkkIsLiNg)

The film, 'The Thing' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(1982_film)), directed by John Carpenter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carpenter), is an incredible example of film making (especially when considering the amount of visual effects used for its time).The film opens with a strange alien ship entering Earths orbit, apparently unable to control itself, the craft descends onto the planet just before the opening title begins to flood the screen whilst intimidating music begins to play. The plot starts by introducing an all male group conducting some kind of research in Antarctic, during what seems to be an ordinary day out in the frozen continent, a Norwegian helicopter enters the area chasing a seemingly ordinary Husky. The two men aboard the helicopter seem deadly intent on killing the dog with their large stash of grenades and armed weaponry; the dangerous actions of the two man crew sets the team of English speaking men on alert who simply see this situation as the audience does, as two foreign men chasing a regular looking dog with an otherwise unexplained reason for killing it. As the scene develops the helicopter is destroyed along with one of the Norwegians by a stray grenade, the remaining Norwegian continues to approach the dog who has now fled behind the main group of protagonists, the moment he begins to fire upon the dog he immediately puts the group at risk and he is hit with a returning pistol round which grounds him with a shot through the eye, killing him instantly. This scene is very important as it shows that upon immediate contact with an otherwise (ironical) alien force, we all immediately seem to become defensive, borderline possessive of what we deem to be familiar, the crew did not know the dog, however they immediately chose to harbour it over the obviously distressed Norwegian, thus showing how we are at our most vulnerable when encountering both the new and the familiar...
The plot then continues to develop, revealing R.J.MacReady (played by Kurt Russell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Russell)) to be the film's true main protagonist; shortly after the dog is taken into the groups company, it is put with along the other dogs in the main kennel where it begins to undergo a sudden and horrific change (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7SA-LcQS0g), its flesh begins to morph and its entire form begins to convert to something more like an insect then an actual dog. The now near unrecognisable organism begins to attack the dogs, spraying a sort of digestive fluid onto their bodies as it begins to assimilate their biomass into its ever changing, alien body; this scene truly reveals the visual genius put into this movie and why it stands out so much as a horror title. The crew quickly arrives at the scene only to bare witness to the horror that has now taken partial shape before them, the thing has now assimilated an entire dog into its form, the poor animal is howling out in pain as its skin begins to shed and its flesh continues to meld with that of the creature's, this hideous abomination is quickly dealt with, leaving nothing but a hideous smouldering corpse as it was burned alive. This introduces the most terrifying aspect of the Thing, it can assimilate and imitate any organism it comes into contact with, and having been left free reign of the facility for about a day or two, there is no telling who may have been assimilated already.
As the plot develops, it becomes more like a murder mystery, no one can trust anyone as this creature can perfectly imitate anyone or anything organic; a number of character give into the pressure as some of the crew is killed off by the imitations which in turn are dispatched with fire, tension builds as this creature and or creatures continue to loose themselves upon remaining survivors, ultimately leading up to one of the crew burning himself alive in secret so as to spare himself the horror that is the Thing.
That is the true horror of the Thing, being kept in a relatively enclosed environment induces a sense of claustrophobia whilst the knowledge that such a hideous abomination is living among the survivors leaves both the remaining protagonists and the viewer(s) in a constant state of fear and distrust, obviously the graphic horror of the Thing plays a massive part in what makes it so terrifying, however the idea that there is no one you can trust among those you have grown to acknowledge as friends is truly frightening.
Eventually the film leads up to the point where the remaining survivors know they wont survive this situation either way, as now the frozen environment poses as much of a challenge as the Thing as temperatures continue to drop in the Antarctic. With the simple mission of killing the creature with no hope for themselves, they begin to destroy the facility with a bulldozer and explosives. The destruction of their facility, their sanctuary conveys to me a sense of finality and an acceptance of their own mortality and in turn, their inevitable demise, they have chosen to utilise their imminent deaths instead of simply giving into fear and irrationality. The final appearance of the Thing only occurs after it has taken out the remaining survivors, all aside for MacReady (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVgqhPqHPa4) who ends the hulking horror with the last explosive which sets off the other explosives scattered throughout what remains of the facility. This scene definitely imposes a sense of closure until it is revealed that one of the other survivors, Mr Childs (played by Keith David (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_David)) is still alive; throughout the film, Childs has proven to be an annoyance to the group, calling them all crazy for their belief in the monster and later introducing instability into the dwindling group of survivors. The apparent survival of Childs comes as a shock to the still alive MacReady who has now simply settled in the snow, waiting for his demise; however the presence of Childs introduces the possibility that the Thing has survived through him, and that is where the story ends, with now defining sense of closure, leaving us as the audience with one big question, is he the Thing?
Overall the film was an incredible experience that featured incredible visual effects (for its time) and a well developed understanding of (colour) contrast and cinematography. As a viewer i was thoroughly entertained by the plot even though i personally do not like horror as a genre, the tension featured throughout the film added to the lingering sense of mortality in the main characters, leaving me in a constant state of fear and suspicion.