FOXSYLVANIA

 – – Wow, it doesn’t seem possible that it was way back in 1982 that John Carpenter made his version of the sci-fi/horror classic The Thing, complete with Kurt Russell as that film’s protagonist, R.J. MacReady!- –Well, some Thing else is coming this October, this version a prequel taking place three days before the events of the John Carpenter film and following the exploits of the Norwegian and American scientists unfortunate enough to originally discover the shape-shifting alien.

While it’s hard to beat Kurt Russell, the new version of The Thing includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Dr. Kate Lloyd, a lead character somewhat modeled after Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley in the Alien film series; fortunately, no romantic or sexual elements will be introduced associated with her character in keeping with the dark tone and paranoid atmospherics of the previous film.   Efforts have been made to keep the new film visually consistent with the 1982 Carpenter flick, and creature effects will include both animatronic and computer generated imagery.  We’ll be seeing much more of the interior of the crashed alien spacecraft, and it will also be implied what the nasty alien mimics were doing about in the galaxy.- -All in all, The Thing should serve to remind us that if we find something buried deep in the ice in Antarctica, leave it the hell alone!

I plan on seeing The Thing in October, and you may want to, as well…who knows, The Thing may become you!