I recently had the pleasure of seeing the prequel to John Carpenter's THE THING (1982), titled...THE THING (2011). I had been waiting some time for this film tentatively keeping track of it's various incarnations over the years until Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. decided to make a prequel to Carpenter's classic. I was interested to see how writers by Eric Heisserer and Ronald D. Moore would tackle the story. When I heard that they would be telling the Norwegian story (for those who have seen the 82' flick know what I'm talking about) I was very very interested.
| “It’s a really fascinating way to construct a story because we're doing it by autopsy, by examining very, very closely everything we know about the Norwegian camp and about the events that happened there from photos and video footage that’s recovered, from a visit to the base, the director, producer and I have gone through it countless times marking, you know, there’s a fire axe in the door, we have to account for that…we're having to reverse engineer it, so those details all matter to us ‘cause it all has to make sense.” |
| — Eric Heisserer describing the process of creating a script that is consistent with the first film.[17] |
For me this was a special occasion. As a kid growing up, I was at Hoyts (when it was still Hoyts back then on George Street) when the first THE THING came out, and I remember standing there seeing the poster at the back of the complex. Now in 2011 I was again there to see the prequel, twenty something years later. I was having flashbacks, plus I saw the new film in cinema 4, one of the remaining original cinemas currently in Event Cinemas on George Street. I have to say, it was a blast. Although it didn't have the same creepiness and paranoia as Carpenter's one, its till packed a punch and what put the icing on the cake is how they ended it. won't spoil it but they superbly ended it leading straight into Carpenter's flick. You can easily finish watching the 2011 version and jump straight into the 1982 sequel...how's that for trippy.
Click on the link to see a small clip of me at the screening.
No comments:
Post a Comment