John Carpenter's The Thing is a Paranoia Induced Nightmare of Body Horror Terror

The Thing is a timeless classic that I keep finding myself returning to. I have seen this film a total of 6 times, and every new watch feels like a different experience. I would study every detail of the film, and it does surprise me how I forget certain parts of the story. I think it has to do with the terror that I feel coming from the main group of men in the story, because it's one of the few horror films where I feel so sorry for the victims. 

I consider this film to be in the top 5 worst ways to die in a horror film. The thought of being trapped in the middle of nowhere with no way out, knowing that something not human is hunting you is the worst feeling in the world. It's a different level of terror that I hope to never experience, and it's brilliantly executed by the main cast in the story. 

Each man in the group plays a huge part for the film, watching these men try to survive against something that scares the shit out of them is a tough watch, knowing that these men are most likely going to die. It brings out the humanity within every character in the film, making each man stand out to me as a viewer!

We follow the story of a research base who stumbles upon two random men trying to kill a dog in Antarctica.

Men at a research base notice that two men in a helicopter are trying to kill a dog, and are confronted by the two men during a shootout. One of the men gets shot during the commotion, and they are able to kill one of the attackers while the other one accidentally blows himself up with the helicopter. A man named Clark brings the dog into the base, and right away, we notice how the dog is not acting like a normal dog. 

It appears to be closely analyzing the men, as they try to figure out why the dog was being hunted so relentlessly. Macready, a pilot for the base, leaves with several men to go solve this odd mystery. Macready and the men discover another secret base, that is filled with nothing but death. They also find an alien spaceship, and realize that this group had found something, that led to their brutal deaths. 

The group also discovers something even worse, when they find two bodies that had somehow been merged together. 

They bring the strange body back to the base, so that it can be studied by the group. A biologist named Blair operates on the body, and finds that the body is filled with human organs, confusing the men. After the autopsy, Clark puts the dog into the kennel with the other dogs, that leads to a shocking reveal. 

The dog is The Thing, an alien that can imitate any living being.

The dog transforms into an alien, attacking the other dogs on sight. It kills most of them, as the men watch in horror. The men fight off the creature, and it escapes through the ceiling. Blair does another autopsy, and tells the men a dark truth, that this alien is able to mimic other life forms. After this discovery, Blair goes crazy, once he learns that this alien can possibly imitate the entire world. 

Blair destroys any chance the men have at escaping from the base, including finishing off the rest of the dogs that were still alive. Blair is apprehended by the men, and they lock him in a shed, to prevent him from doing any more damage. Blair warns Macready, telling him to watch Clark, since he was the one who was near the dogs. 

The base doctor, Copper, suggests that maybe the men could test their own blood to make sure no one is The Thing, but their blood bags are found completely destroyed, an event that leads the men to start becoming extremely paranoid with one another. One man gets killed, and the men are able to use a flamethrower to kill the Thing, who was trying to mimic him. 

The paranoia continues to build up, with the men now believing that Macready is the Thing. After they discover another body, the men leave him out in the snow. Macready breaks back into the base, threatening to blow himself up with dynamite, along with the other men. 

During the confrontation, one man has a heart attack. Copper proceeds to try and bring him back, as Macready holds the men at bay with his flamethrower. As Copper is trying to pump start the dead man's heart, the stomach suddenly opens up, exposing a large mouth. Copper's arms are ripped off, and he dies instantly. The body transforms, into a human like alien creature. The men burn the body, but it tries to escape by using the head of the body, turning into a spider like alien creature. 

Macready kills the last creature, and decides to come up with a plan to test every single man that is left alive. 

Macready conducts a blood test to see who else is The Thing.

Before Macready can test each of the men, Clark attempts to attack Macready, but he kills him with a gun. The blood test begins, and as Macready is testing the men, he comes to the horrible conclusion that Clark was a human. A man named Childs mocks Macready for being a murderer, as he continues the blood test. Once they reach one man named Palmer, the blood reacts, revealing that he is The Thing. 

The men go into a total panic as Macready tries to kill the Thing, but the flamethrower gives out. The Thing succeeds in killing one of the men, before Macready burns both the Thing and the body to save the remaining group. The blood test resumes, and it is revealed that the remaining survivors are all human. The men then devise a plan to destroy the Thing for good, by burning down the entire base, to make sure it will never be able to escape. 

They inform Childs to stay behind at the base, and the other survivors set out to go look for Blair, who stayed locked in the shed. They find that Blair is now the Thing, who was building a spaceship to escape. They see Childs run out of the base, and the generator to the base shuts off, leaving the men without heat. The survivors go to search for Blair, and each of them get killed, leaving Macready as the only survivor. 

He is confronted by The Thing, who is a combination of multiple beings it has imitated. Macready blows the creature up, and he escapes, now left out in the snow. Childs comes back from out of nowhere, and Macready asks him where he has been. Childs claims that he thought that he had seen Blair, and ran out of the base to go look for him. 

Childs sees with Macready, as the two men wait to die. The movie ends with Macready watching Childs take a drink from a bottle, and he laughs, implying that Macready suspects that Childs is the Thing. 

I love how John Carpenter ends the film with the same sense of paranoia that was present throughout the film. I can't believe that this film wasn't received well by critics upon release, resulting in a terrible box office. Thankfully, this movie now has a cult fanbase, leading to multiple theories of what happened to the men, including many fans praising the body horror. 

In my opinion, this was the film to begin the reign of body horror, creating a powerful evolution of a new genre in horror. 

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Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn