Which is better?
Which version is better? This version or John Carpenter's? Or would you consider them completely different movies? I haven't seen this unfortunatley.
Take off every Zig
I saw it a long time ago and I can't really remember it, but I did see clips of it on a tv show the other day and it looks quite impressive still. Both movies are based on a book called "Who Goes There?", and because of the obvious technical advances between the two films, the remake was able to be truer to the book than the original was and have a shape shifting alien. The original had to make do with a straight forward monster, typical of those type of movies from that era.
Out of all the remakes that have come out over the years, I would say that John Carpenter's The Thing is the best.
The monster in this reminded me of Frankenstein, but I still liked the movie.
"The values I should in high regard don't mean a thing to me"
-Sonata Arctica, "Misplaced"
Friends, the monster LOOKS like Frankensteins Monster because they couldn't come up with a design that Howard Hawks liked. Finally in desperation and probably exasperation, he just blurted out, "Get a big guy, and put him in Frankenstein make-up and a Nazi uniform!!!". And a classic was born. That was how I always perceived the Thing, even when I first saw the movie on late night television when I was about 5. Then years later I discovered "Starlog" magazine, and found out how right I was. Later.
sharebecause of the obvious technical advances between the two films, the remake was able to be truer to the book than the original was and have a shape shifting alien.
I don't know why you and others say that the original was unable, or at least less able, to present a shape shifting alien. In the original story, as well as I remember -- and I've read it many times -- the alien is never seen shifting shapes. You don't have to see weird shapes to know that it has replaced someone.
I don't know why the first film version chose not to follow the main premise of the story. I always thought it was a shame. It was a good monster movie, but that's all it was.
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I just read "Who Goes There?" (finished it 20 minutes ago) and it has the monster shape-shifting in several scenes. The first time is when the cook is murdered, but then grows scales and talons to defend itself when they go to electrocute his body, as it was really a thing playing dead.
The blood test scene is almost spot-on with Carpenter's version, with several of the things revealing themselves just before or as their blood is tested.
Finally, the thing in Blair's cabin shape-shifts several times during the final fight.
John Carpenter's is much truer to the original story, even using many of the names from the original (this version uses none of the names), like McReady, Doc Copper, Blair, Clark, Garry and Norris.
The dog pen scene is close in both the original and Carpenter's as well.
The main changes were technological (as 40+ years had passed between the original being written and the Carpenter film's production), the number of people in the camp (there were many more people in the original, as well as more things), and who was infected and who wasn't.
Overall, Carpenter's version was much, much closer than this version. The only thing this movie had in common with the original story is that they found an alien frozen in the ice and electrocuted it.
Quite simply, an apples and oranges comparison.
Both fine films. Carpenter stuck more to the novella, special effects
not as much available in 51.
When I watch both films, I don't even THINK about a comparison.
I simply sit back and enjoy both.
My fav of the two?
I guess I've gotta go with the original because of the
ground breaking-ness of the first.
We had been breast-fed on gory special effects by the time
the remake arrived.
Note: IMHO, I still think they could have toned down the
bloody gore and jacked up more 'thrills' (which they did do anyway)
in the remake. Hey! Two very fine films....
I agree both versions have their own merits. In both there is a menace from the creature. In the original you never know when he'll pop up out of nowhere and attack and in the remake you can never quite be sure which of the 'human' characters is in fact an alien in disguise.
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