Antarctica, 1982. A team of Norwegian scientists discovers an alien spaceship buried in the ice. American paleontologist Kate Lloyd is contacted to join the Norwegian team to study the extraterrestrial craft and the organism that inhabited it, which appears to have died thousands of years ago in the crash. But the "thing," a parasite capable of imitating any life form it comes into contact with, is alive, and once unleashed, Kate must team up with the group's pilot, Carter, to prevent the creature from killing them all, pitting them against each other by mimicking their appearance.
When dealing with a classic, it is very easy to attract a flood of preemptive criticism from those who loved the original work. This is exactly what happened with this project titled "The Thing," which many – even today after the film's release – mistakenly consider a remake of John Carpenter's masterpiece. So, let’s start with some initial clarifications. Strike Entertainment initially proposed the idea of remaking Carpenter's film, which itself was a loose adaptation of John W. Campbell's story "Who Goes There?", previously brought to the screen in 1951 as "The Thing from Another World" by Christian Nyby. For years, there was talk of a sequel to be directed by Carpenter himself, a hypothesis eventually scrapped in favor of the idea of a remake, as remakes were particularly trendy at the time. Fortunately, this idea was also rejected, and screenwriter Eric Heisserer ventured into writing a prequel that would narrate what happened at the Norwegian base where Carpenter's film begins.
It must be said that it was difficult to craft something genuinely compelling from a story whose development and outcome were already well-known. Furthermore, the comparison with Carpenter's film (one of the few true masterpieces of fantastic cinema) was inevitable and bound to be harsh, as predicted by critics. Taking all this into account, it must be admitted that this prequel is not only an excellent film but also an excellent prequel: director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. and his team managed to achieve a small miracle!
The structure of this prequel follows that of the 1982 film (hence the accusations of being a remake) but provides a fresh perspective and tackles an alternative theme. This time, the "Thing" is not the only woman in the group; there are two others, including protagonist Kate, an American paleontologist called to contribute to the study of the alien being discovered. Unlike Carpenter's film, the characters here have a slight advantage: they roughly know what they are fighting against, although the alien's mimicry abilities still manage to evoke suspicion and paranoia, reaching their peak in the test scene and its aftermath. Interestingly, while Carpenter's film was often interpreted as a metaphor for AIDS contagion, here one can discern an ideal manifesto for physical perfection. The Thing can only replicate organic material, thus "correcting" human "flaws" such as joint or dental prosthetics, resulting in an ideally perfect clone. The Thing becomes a solution to physical imperfections, a homogenization toward a superhuman ideal capable of dominance in an evolutionary perspective reminiscent of Cold War-era sci-fi fears.
Frequent and somewhat clever nods to fans of the original include musical references (Carpenter's main theme adapted by Marco Beltrami is heard at the beginning and end), clarifications of some "mysteries" from the previous film, and a suggestive finale during the end credits that perfectly ties this prequel to the 1982 film, creating a seamless narrative continuity.
Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., making his feature film debut here, demonstrates a particular talent for crafting anxiety-filled and tense scenes, which "The Thing" is brimming with and often achieves maximum impact, especially in the sequences where the alien unleashes its grotesque transformations. In this regard, the stunning special effects deserve mention, striking a balance between CGI and practical effects, with some truly original and impressive body transformations. One of the strengths of Carpenter's film was Rob Bottin's incredibly realistic effects; in van Heijningen Jr.'s film, the logic of mutations is respected with a gallery of frightening and coherent freaks. Despite the substantial use of digital effects, the materiality of the human body twisted and tormented, characteristic of Bottin's work, remains intact.
The cast is very strong, led by the adaptable Mary Elizabeth Winstead ("Final Destination 3"; "Live Free or Die Hard") and Joel Edgerton ("The Devil's Breath"; "Warrior"), supported by Ulrich Thomsen ("Season of the Witch"; "Centurion"), Eric Christian Olsen ("Eagle Eye"; "N.C.I.S."), and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje ("Lost"; "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra").
The "Thing" prequel works very well… obviously, if one seeks qualitative comparisons with Carpenter's cult classic, it falls short because, although van Heijningen Jr. did a good job, the 1982 film has a unique expressive power. But in terms of being a complementary film and a purely commercial operation aimed at fans of the previous work, this prequel achieved the best it could aspire to. Like the 1982 film, this prequel was also a box office flop.
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