The Thing not worth watching

By Kensey King     10/19/11 7:00pm

Good horror films have anxiety-filled silent moments, loads of blood and gore and a screaming girl; the better ones are unpredictable and give you nightmares. Van Heijningen Jr.'s The Thing is not one of those movies. With its mediocre cast and predictable plot, The Thing fails to deliver as an epic horror film.

The movie opens in Antarctica with two men who make a great scientific discovery. To study and understand the archaeological specimens, Dr. Sander Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen, Season of the Witch) invites up-and-coming paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Winstead, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) to join him and his assistant, Adam Goodman (Eric Christian Olsen, Fired Up!), on the dig of a lifetime. Lloyd and Goodman receive no information before arriving in Antarctica, and join the team completely ignorant of the danger that awaits them. After arriving to the dig site, they manage to move a large, frozen, alien-like creature inside and start evaluating its origins. Unfortunately, Halvorson is incredibly impatient and makes the team drill into the specimen in hopes of speeding up the identification. A few hours later the ice melts, and the creature is very much alive. It then begins slaughtering the team, one by one. The scientists later discover, after looking at a microscopic view of its cells, that destroying the creature proves to be more complex than they thought since it disguises itself as the people it has killed. Each character becomes suspicious of everyone else and the battle to kill the Thing ensues.

Overall, the cast gives a decent performance, making the fear somewhat believable. Most of the acting falls on Mary Winstead's shoulders as her character takes charge when the situation gets hostile. Her acting remains consistent throughout the film, and her looks seems to fit the part perfectly. Playing the intellectual villain, Ulrich Thomsen does a commendable job at making the audience despise him from the very beginning. Thomsen's suspicious face and alpha male attitude make his character stand out, but he remains one-dimensional throughout the film. Eric Christian Olsen also gives a good but forgettable performance as Adam Goldman, the innocent and ignorant assistant. The rest of the cast is full of rookie actors that are simply mediocre.

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Since the story centers on the destruction of this alien-like creature, the technical side of the movie is rather important. The Thing itself is actually rather lifelike in appearance and contains a large amount of detail from the way it walks to the way it kills. Unfortunately the crew goes over the top on the amount of gore present in the film, making it feel fake and outdated.

Another problem in the film is the lack of character development. The only character that the audience can connect with is Lloyd. Although it is easy to cheer her on as she fights for her life, the other team members' struggles and deaths solely provide entertainment value as blood and guts spill all over the place. Also, this gruesome tale happens in Antarctica on a scientific dig, a situation that very few audience members, if any, can really connect with. In order for a horror film to really scare and loom over its audience, it needs to be applicable to everyday life. This movie is just too specific to do this.

This new version of The Thing, now deemed as the prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 horror classic of the same name, brings nothing new to the screen as the plot progresses slowly and the actors are just ordinary. The Thing will make you jump in your seat but will not put you in the true Halloween spirit. The only thing you will fear after watching The Thing is moving to Antarctica.

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