# This time I'm really going to watch "The Thing" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 30, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326 "2008-10-30T21:32:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [October 30, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/1 "2008-10-30T21:32:16Z")
It’s on right now. I tried watching it once before but the early dog kennel scene freaked me right the fuck out and I turned it off. [Bender voice]I’m really gonna do it! Don’t try to stop me!\* I’m going to watch this sucker. I loved the original _The Thing_, and I love _Alien_, so why do I have trouble with this one? Of course I’m also recording it, too, in case I wuss out at some point. I am home alone, after all. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/2 "2008-10-30T21:39:30Z")
Which one? The one with Kurt Russel? ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/3 "2008-10-30T21:44:30Z")
Here’s a tip: try watching “The Thing” with _Dark Side of the Moon_ playing in the background. Backward. 😃 No, just kidding. You might like _The Thing_ if you can get past all the creepy horror ick scary boo. ---
**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:** [October 30, 2008, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/4 "2008-10-30T21:44:55Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > Which one? The one with Kurt Russel? Yeppers. Apologies - I should have specified _John Carpenter’s The Thing_. ::shivering:: It’s getting pretty oogy. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/5 "2008-10-30T21:45:52Z")
You’re in for quite a treat. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/6 "2008-10-30T21:47:07Z")
Check out Howard Hawks’s original. Still a masterpiece. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/7 "2008-10-30T21:54:39Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Check out Howard Hawks’s original. Still a masterpiece. My God…we agree on something! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/8 "2008-10-30T21:56:14Z")
“I don’t know what’s in there, but it’s weird and pissed off!” For years after that movie, whenever it was even slightly on point, you could hear one of my kids say “I ain’t sittin’ next to Windows!” ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/9 "2008-10-30T22:03:21Z")
_The Thing_ is contagious. By my calculations, if it ever gets on the internet then in 3 years time all of humanity will be watching it. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/10 "2008-10-30T22:08:51Z")
> [@Chez\_Guevara](#): > > _The Thing_ is contagious. > > By my calculations, if it ever gets on the internet then in 3 years time all of humanity will be watching it. You can Watch Instantly on Netflix RIGHT FRIGGIN’ NOW! RUN!!! ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/11 "2008-10-30T22:09:57Z")
Ya gotta be fucking kidding. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/12 "2008-10-30T22:26:12Z")
Y’know, McFarlane toys made Thing action figures. One of them hangs from my dining room light fixture. I have not played The Thing video game because my pc still is not up to specs. I haven’t rented the dvd and heard the commentary, though I’ve heard good reviews of the commentary. Oh, a picture of the thing as described in the original story Who Goes There? is in Barlowe’s Guide To Extraterrestrials. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/13 "2008-10-30T22:30:51Z")
I love this flick. I’m not much into horror, but movies like _The Thing_ and the original _Alien_ rock. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/14 "2008-10-30T23:20:26Z")
> [@Chez\_Guevara](#): > > _The Thing_ is contagious. > > By my calculations, if it ever gets on the internet then in 3 years time all of humanity will be watching it. Watch it with limited commercial interruption on [Hulu.com](http://Hulu.com). ---
**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:** [October 30, 2008, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/15 "2008-10-30T23:23:06Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > I have not played The Thing video game because my pc still is not up to specs. Don’t bother. For every atom of Awesome that went into the movie, an opposing atom of Suck was used in the creation of the video game. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2008, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/16 "2008-10-31T00:39:32Z")
Well, that was gruesome. Perhaps I shouldn’t have chosen a dark rainy day when I was sick and alone in the house to watch it. What I need now is some nice wholesome hockey with fistfighting. Well done on the paranoia aspect. In my mind, _The Thing_ is _Alien_ is _JC’s The Thing_, as the same basic reliable haunted house theme is reworked and improved upon. I really thought it was the dog guy Clark who was going to burst out as the next alien manifestation - they got me good. Wilford Brimley made a good possible suspect, as well. I can’t pinpoint when he got infected, though - probably when he was isolated in that shed, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/17 "2008-10-31T00:46:50Z")
I’d love to have a sculpture of the corpse they find at the Norwegian camp, the one they killed in mid-transformation. So creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/18 "2008-10-31T00:54:54Z")
> [@Scissorjack](#): > > Ya gotta be fucking kidding. I love this line. My husband and I say it whenever appropriate. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sycorax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@Sycorax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sycorax)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/19 "2008-10-31T01:14:38Z")
I saw it when it first came out, and I was disappointed with it. I sort of recall the dogs in the cages, and it didn’t freak me out, but then I was disappointed that it seemed such a departure from the original (1951). I don’t even recall if I finished watching it. The original definitely made an impression on me; I never forgot it, and I bought it as soon as it came out on VHS. I prefer a horror movie that grabs me at the outset and then slowly tweaks out the “horror” with suspense and intelligent reasoning by the characters, leading up to a surprising and a relatively horrifying but happy ending. Blood and guts just don’t do it for me. I’m not squeamish; I just like decent dialogue, acting, and suspense. (Although I think that the “mad doctor” in the original was a little over the top.) ---
**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:** [October 31, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326/20 "2008-10-31T01:22:53Z")
I caught it on one of the late late night showings on TV once (mid-80’s). Scared and creeped the bejeezus out of me. I didn’t get much sleep that night. The original is more of a departure from the book than the remake is. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-time-im-really-going-to-watch-the-thing/470326.md?page=2)