Andrew
April 9
59%
John Carpenter's film The Thing (1981) is based on a 1938 short story (Who Goes There) which was made into a film in 1951 (The Thing from Another World). The film follows the scientists based in an Antarctica research station who discover they have an alien monster in thier station. The "Thing" attacks, then imitates thier victim such that everyone else is left trying to work out which one of them is actually the monster.
The film has become a cult classic despite the fact that it did not do particularly well when released. It had stiff competion since it was released at roughly the same time as the much more family friendly sci-fi film ET. The movie was released a few years after Alien. I thought that there were too many similarities to the way both films were made. I had avoided the Thing just because I am not too keen on gory horror films. However, I found myslef laughing at some ot the monster special effects. I am not sure that was how his monster was expected to be recieved!
The film was presented with carefully slected delicacies. Spam, corned beef, tined olives - in fact anything in tins because that is all the food that remained on the station as the Thing was demolished most of the rest of the base. There were packets of Monster crips, sweet ice wine and a various sweet chewy jelly things that looked like eyeballs and various bits of bloody alien tenticals. There was also J&B whiskey to wash it all down with. Something that Kurt Russell was seen drinking frequently during the film.
As usual Andrew had done his homework and presented the film well which gave him a high score for the introduction of 78%. However, the food, while there was definately a creative link to the film, was not up to the usual quality of the cheese and meats we are now expecting! The film did not score well. There was suggestion that some scoring had taken place too early before discussion on the merits of the film had taken place. Maybe that is why it didn't score well! Timings on when to score to be driven by the chairman in future!
Trivia - The film is screened annually in February to mark the beginning of winter at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. Much of the film was filmed on set in Hollywood. Kurt Russell took a drag on a cigarette at the beginning of certain shots in order to make his breath appear more visible.
