The Making of The Thing

John Carpenter's The Thing is a true Masterpiece.

This movie was literally made by a group of artistic geniuses and pioneers. Absolutely incredible gathering of talent.

Alien, Aliens, Predator and the Thing in my book are all the Goats of Alien Horror films

I don’t believe there will ever be a more perfect horror movie ever.

To this day, whenever The Thing is on, no matter where I start watching it from I watch it all. I have a ritual, to watch the movie on the the night of the first snow of winter. It's my favorite horror movie of all time.

When I was working on "Big Trouble in Little China," during a break I introduced myself to John Carpenter and told him how much I enjoyed "The Thing." John was perhaps the nicest person you'd ever want to meet, just a "regular guy." Anyway, being the honest bloke I am, I then asked him why it didn't do so well at the box office, and he gave me this answer: "Bad timing. I happened to release it on the same day Steven Spielberg released something called, "E.T." After we shared a sardonic laugh I told him, "I actually saw it 36 times." It was then that he replied, "Would you like to meet the man who shot it?? Hey Dean (Cundy), come over here!! This guy said he watched The Thing 36 times!!" Then Dean look at me, grinned, and said, "Then you saw it more times than I did."

The Thing is, without a doubt, one of the absolute BEST films I've ever seen and probably will ever see. Forget cgi, puppetry and the other elements are the real deal. I'm not at all surprised by the cult following.

"I know you gentleman have been through a lot but when you find the time I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter tied to this F'ing couch!" funniest line of one of the most excellent sci-fi films of all time. A heart pounding show stopper from start to finish the least of which is the opening scene with the dog running.

I’m a little upset they didn’t mention Ennio Morricone as his music really added to that sense of isolation, of an alien presence, and of the inevitability John Carpenter talked about at the end of this documentary.

I'm from Russia. This movie is still a labour of love in this country. In the 80's and 90's people watched it in the jpeg dub on VHS and still fell in love. Just get that in the mind, this movie has 26 russian dubs (half professionals and half amateur VHS dubs). It's 40 years now, 40th anniversary. Still stands out. Truly a masterpiece. Threatening movie with a lot of layers of suspense and psychological horror, which zoomers will never understand (goddamn fans of gore porn movies).

that dog was a great actor. seriously.

Rob Bottin is a true rockstar of special effects. He is one of my all time heroes.

Just showed this film to a filmmaker friend of mine for the first time, he's 33 and had never seen it, his constant comment of the film was "What year was this made?" He was blown away, still holds up to this day.

The fact that Clark's actor really was more drawn to the canines makes me happy. It comes across In the film

I use to consider Alien the best sci-fi/horror movie ever made but when I first saw The Thing back in 1986 on VHS I was blown away. It truly is the definition of a Masterpiece. And the practical effects still hold up today better than the GCI they put in everything. Everytime I watch it it just gets better. A masterclass in suspense and tension combined with terror..

Who's the guy who disliked this video? "It's Weird and Pissed Off, Whatever It Is."

A time when people actually worked to make effects and write stories, instead of mass producing.

An absolute masterpiece of a movie.  For all the CGI stuff they can do now Rob Bottin's work on this is unbelievable.

My father showed me The Thing way earlier than I should have seen it! I was 7 or 8(?) and wanted to see a horror movie that would actually scare me. It was a challenge I put to my father - show me a movie that’s really scary. The alien series were chilling but didn’t scare me. The nightmare series were great but again, didn’t scare me. Many other singular movies or series just didn’t scare me. Then he got out The Thing… the challenge ended that day. It scared me in such a profound manner - not due to jump scares, not due to the fear of what’s hiding in the dark or around a corner but a deep fear of anyone or anything turning against me. “He’s my friend, I’ve known him for 20 years!” Now I watch it once a day, every day from the 24th of October to Halloween! Such an amazing movie, still my all time favourite horror!

The way they did the opening title scene for revealing the letters is amazing. So simple but looks like a lot of time and money was spent on it. Just took one guy to sit down and think for a bit, get a cool idea, and try it.