# The Thing remake: trailer out **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 21, 2011, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831 "2011-07-21T09:14:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/21 "2011-07-21T18:34:51Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > but I’ve always sort of assumed it was a lowbrow guilty pleasure on my part and most people did not like it, or regarded it as cheesy and gross. > > Is it really considered a classic and/or held in high regard? It’s a classic lowbrow guilty pleasure :D. I suspect the affection for it is more along the lines of a cult following rather than a critical one. It’s sort of like the film _The Hidden_ in that respect. I really appreciate its quieter moments with their sense of foreboding and I think the opening is gorgeous. IMO Carpenter can be quite good at building unease and dramatic tension - the first thirty minutes of _Prince of Darkness_ is similarly effective. But then he explodes it all in a tower of gore. His excess really is often EXCESS. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/22 "2011-07-21T18:45:26Z")
Wotta revoltin’ development this is! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/23 "2011-07-21T19:59:06Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Uh-huh. And how much would you wager that this “prequel” will follow almost exactly the same formula as the original, right down to the female Kurt Russell being one of the last to die, deciding to stay in the camp, freezing to death, just to ensure the creature doesn’t get out? That seems likely, if for no other reason than there’s not much material the original movie left unexplored. It does appear that this new one is going to spend more time in the crashed space ship, which is the only thing I can think of that would really provide something new, but I always kind of liked that the original left the ship just a shadow in the ice. I don’t really expect much from this film other than some neat looking monsters and appropriately gory deaths. If it can deliver on that, I’ll be content. I would like it if the film establishes a romantic relationship between the female lead, a bearded Norwegian, and his trusty dog, and ends on an upbeat note where they all survive and have a helicopter to get back to safety. Just because of the way that recontextures the opening of the original. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/24 "2011-07-21T20:18:30Z")
Though I’ve seen Carpenter’s _The Thing_, I somehow missed the first few minutes of the movie. They really killed a Norwegian guy because he was going to kill a dog? ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/25 "2011-07-21T20:31:42Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > Though I’ve seen Carpenter’s _The Thing_, I somehow missed the first few minutes of the movie. They really killed a Norwegian guy because he was going to kill a dog? No. They killed him because one of his shots (aimed at the dog) grazed an American. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/26 "2011-07-21T20:35:16Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > Though I’ve seen Carpenter’s _The Thing_, I somehow missed the first few minutes of the movie. They really killed a Norwegian guy because he was going to kill a dog? Here you go - first [ten minutes of the film](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai1T3KMRMpg). ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/27 "2011-07-21T20:42:44Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > That seems likely, if for no other reason than there’s not much material the original movie left unexplored. It does appear that this new one is going to spend more time in the crashed space ship, which is the only thing I can think of that would really provide something new, but I always kind of liked that the original left the ship just a shadow in the ice. For my money, they could spend the first hour unraveling the mystery of what happened on board that ship and that would be OK with me. Presumably the crew of the ship was being attacked when it crashed. Hey, I just got an idea for another prequel… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/28 "2011-07-21T20:56:00Z")
> [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](#): > > My favorite line is from Palmer when Norris’ head grows legs and tries to walk away: “You gotta be \*\*\*\*\*\* kidding.” He says it in such a bewildered, exhausted tone - cracks me up every time. That’s what most of the audience is probably thinking at that point. With the irony being that Palmer was a Thing himself at the time. So was he just playing the part, or did he not consciously realize what he truly was? ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/29 "2011-07-21T23:34:35Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > Slightly off topic, but Peter Watts has a [short story](http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/)in Clarke’s World about this tale from the perspective of the alien. Pretty interesting read. I liked it. Thanks for sharing. > [@Tamerlane](#): > > It’s a classic lowbrow guilty pleasure :D. I suspect the affection for it is more along the lines of a cult following rather than a critical one. It’s sort of like the film _The Hidden_ in that respect. Critically, it’s [80% Fresh](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1021244-thing/) at Rotten Tomatoes, though I think I recall hearing that it didn’t fare so well critically at first, but has grown on critics over time. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/30 "2011-07-22T00:00:11Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > Critically, it’s [80% Fresh](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1021244-thing/) at Rotten Tomatoes, though I think I recall hearing that it didn’t fare so well critically at first, but has grown on critics over time. [It was _ravaged_ by critics when it came out](http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/27/the-thing-john-carpenter): > [@](#): > > Critics often get it wrong, but they’ve rarely been so wide of the mark as when they reviewed The Thing in 1982. Chacun a son goût, of course, but they didn’t just give it the thumbs-down; they tore into it like jackals. “This movie is more disgusting than frightening, and most of it is just boring,” wrote David Denby in New York magazine. Vincent Canby of the New York Times called it: “too phony looking to be disgusting. It qualifies only as instant junk”. Their counterparts on this side of the Atlantic were no less scathing. Derek Malcolm wrote in this paper that the special effects were: “let loose on us by the bucketful, and satiation rather than horror is the result”. William Parente of the Scotsman went further: “The only avenue left to explore would seem to be either concentration camp documentaries or the snuff movie.” > > Many reviewers compared Carpenter’s film unfavourably to Christian Nyby’s The Thing from Another World (produced by Howard Hawks, often credited as the film’s auteur), which had been based on the same source material, John W Campbell’s 1938 novella Who Goes There? Variety wrote: “What the old picture delivered – and what Carpenter has missed – was a sense of intense dread.” Which is funny, because in 1951, the same paper had said of Nyby’s film: “The resourcefulness shown in building the plot groundwork is lacking as the yarn gets into full swing. Cast members … fail to communicate any real terror.” > > This suggests, perhaps, that classics can only truly be appreciated in retrospect, when the dust has settled. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/31 "2011-07-22T00:08:03Z")
I loved the special effects of the 80s’ movies. You had to have some actual chops to pull off good special effects, but if you succeeded, the results were fantastic. _The Thing_ was a success in my eyes. The transformations were…unsettling. That trailer? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh…I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/32 "2011-07-22T04:28:13Z")
My dad woke me up really late one night when I was maybe six to watch “this really great part” of The Thing. It was the blood test scene. The tension nearly killed me. ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/33 "2011-07-22T07:13:22Z")
I’m not going to pre-judge this one. I’m a huge fan of both the '51 version and the '82, as well as the short story which I first read in junior high in '80. All very different, story-wise, but each excellent. I can think of a few scenarios for a prequel that don’t automatically suck. Also, and I may be mis-remembering this, but wasn’t the outpost unable to contact anyone via radio? All in all, I’ve pay to see this one in the theater. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/34 "2011-07-22T10:27:50Z")
You remember correctly. Their radio was destroyed by Wilford Brimley, when he realizes the danger the Thing poses to the rest if the world. ---
**Author:** ![Biffer\_Spice\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@Biffer\_Spice\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffer_Spice_1)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/35 "2011-07-22T11:30:46Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Here you go - first [ten minutes of the film](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai1T3KMRMpg). wow, he AND the computer know NOTHING about chess!! ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/36 "2011-07-22T11:57:01Z")
“Keep watching the skies”. I liked the original best (said shamefacedly). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/37 "2011-07-22T12:50:18Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > “Keep watching the skies”. > > I liked the original best (said shamefacedly). And I. ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/38 "2011-07-22T13:02:53Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > For my money, they could spend the first hour unraveling the mystery of what happened on board that ship and that would be OK with me. Presumably the crew of the ship was being attacked when it crashed. > > Hey, I just got an idea for another prequel… > > 😃 Alien Vs. Predators vs. The Thing? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/39 "2011-07-22T13:49:32Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > You remember correctly. Their radio was destroyed by Wilford Brimley, when he realizes the danger the Thing poses to the rest if the world. Even before it was destroyed, Windows was unable to raise anybody on the radio. One of the best features of the [original trailer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbtUjskfyA0) is that it begins with the lonesome, static-y voice of Windows calling out for help over the airwaves…and ends with static-y dead air. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831/40 "2011-07-22T13:52:02Z")
> [@dogbutler](#): > > Alien Vs. Predators vs. The Thing? In _space!!!_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-remake-trailer-out/589831.md?page=3)