The Thing: Terror Takes Shape

The Thing: Terror Takes Shape (1998)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Very good documentary taking a look at the making of John Carpenter's THE THING. Carpenter is joined by cast members Kurt Russell, Richard Masur, Charlie Hallahan and crew members Rob Bottin, Stan Winston, Peter Kuran, David Foster, Bill Lancaster, Dean Cundy, Todd Ramsay, Susan Turner and John Lloyd. With so many original members on hand you can imagine that quite a bit of detail is given on the making of the film and as Carpenter says, it's rather amazing that they were able to do what they did in the conditions that they were working in. You hear various stories about the production of the movie, which was often hampered by the snow and cold and there are a few great stories from the cast members dealing with a troubled bus ride just getting to the location. Bottin, the man behind the ground-breaking special effects, tells a lot of stories including how he met Carpenter, how he got hired and of course there's talk of how all the special effects were done. As usual Carpenter is great to listen to and he really gives you a great idea of what he wanted out of the film and he also talks about the original movie and story and why he wanted this one to be different. Cast members share plenty of stories as well including what it was like working on an all male cast. Of course, another big subject is how the film didn't do too well at the box office only to gain popularity on video. Fans of THE THING are really going to enjoy seeing so many of the original cast members and the stories are usually great and worth listening to.

As a huge fan, since its release, of John Carpenter's now-classic "The Thing," I was ecstatic to find out that this was included in the DVD version of the movie, but I have to admit that I was also disappointed as well. There'd been a rumor for nearly two decades (perpetrated by Fangoria magazine) that the brilliant Rob Bottin had actually made much more of a dynamic final scene than the one we now see, but that Carpenter had "chickened out" and cut alot of it at the last minute. So, I figured this documentary would show the "real" ending, especially since the DVD box advertized that there were "deleted scenes." Alas, all you see, when it comes to that final scene, is some home-movie footage of a tiny model being animated by the stop-motion process. I guess we'll never know if that rumor was true or not. Oh well, as stated above, the doc as a whole is still wonderful, with Director Carpenter, star Russell, and several others of the cast and crew, reminiscing and recanting. Rob Bottin rules!!!

Greetings from Lithuania.

"The Thing : Terror Takes Shape" (1998) is a documentary movie about creation of the movie "The Thing". It features commentary by cast and crew that worked on this horror classic. There are a lot of videos from the set that shows how this masterpiece was created. Commentaries by Rob Bottom were probably my favourite from the entire crew - this specialist clearly was very passionate about this movie and his work. His incredible and unforgettable work in "The Thing" is one of the most important reasons why this movie is what it is.

Overall, I watched this documentary as a special feature on a 4k uhd disc and I really liked it, because I highly enjoyed "The Thing" through the years.

Superb look back featuring most of the major players, from the producers (who are rarely to be found in such documentaries) to the "talent" (the actors). THE THING is one of the few genuinely MYSTERIOUS movies that draws you in from the opening moments (the chase across the snow) and manages to hold you riveted until the final fade out- thanks primarily to director John Carpenter. (It's amazing to me that no one's written a detailed biography of Carpenter: surely his insights into low budget movie-making alone would be worthy of study- not to mention his childhood forays into filmmaking and self-publishing and his work on the Academy-Award winning short, THE RESURRECTION OF BRONCHO BILLY.) (Better still: Carpenter's AUTOBIOGRAPHY would be even better...)

I agree with an acquaintance I've made at this web site: that there are often certain defining movie experiences in one's life that either lead one to embrace a genre or turn away from it. In my case, seeing "The Thing" for the first time turned me into a loyal horror fan. A skillful, intense, creepy, downbeat, wildly imaginative (in terms of the special effects), and more faithful second adaptation of John W. Campbell's short story "Who Goes There?" (after "The Thing from Another World" of 1951), it found its audience not in its original theatrical run (where both the critical and public reactions were pretty stormy) but on video in the years to come, and has become incredibly influential; it's now more than a mere cult movie but often regarded as a genre classic (although, to be fair, it does still have its detractors). In fact, it's had a kind of staying power that some movies that have been big box office successes haven't had. This superb documentary, basically consisting of sit down interviews, goes through virtually the entire process of making the movie, from conception to execution to aftermath. Interviewees include director John Carpenter, screenwriter Bill Lancaster, producer David Foster, cinematographer Dean Cundey, production designer John Lloyd, and editor Todd Ramsay, makeup and creature creator Rob Bottin, additional creature effects creator Stan Winston, optical effects contributor Peter Kuran, model maker Susan Turner, legendary matte artist Albert Whitlock, and cast members Kurt Russell, Richard Masur, Charles Hallahan, and Joel Polis. Lots of interesting tidbits are shared, with Carpenter discussing the genesis of the project, Lancaster mentioning the aspects of the story that intrigued him the most, Bottin (who comes off as a really bright, cheerful, enthusiastic guy) regaling us with stories of takes gone awry (they sound funny now, but have to have been depressing at the time), while he and Winston go into detail on the creation of their monsters, Lloyd bringing up a potentially disastrous incident (and doing so with disarming good humour), and the actors talking about how they approached playing their characters. One telling detail is that Russell, Hallahan, and Masur all mention that fans often name this movie as being one of the movies, or *the* movie, that they love the most out of all the things they've done. But perhaps the most delightful aspect (for this fan, anyway) is seeing such things as vintage 'making of' footage, stills, storyboards, and the like, as well as hearing Whitlock discuss his technique. For anybody who's fond of the movie itself, seeing this engaging documentary is a true no-brainer. Ten out of 10.