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The film is directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. in his first major motion picture project. For a first film it isn’t bad - the style and execution feel very much like an update on Carpenter’s original, while the look and feel of the film is a perfect one-to-one match with Carpenter’s film with the added bonus of more dramatically compelling special effects. As an homage to Carpenter’s film, it does a really good (if not entirely inspired) job of celebrating it while adding-in some of the back story that makes for a perfectly solid standalone story.

The one little innovation that this latest film adds is kind of funny - simply because of how obvious it is. John W. Campbell Jr. got heavily into the specifics of the search for who may and who may NOT be an alien masquerading as a human. The science got kind of elaborate as they were discussing possible tests, but the most obvious one seems to have been overlooked until now: fillings. An alien can mimic organic matter and borrow someone’s clothes, but dental fillings would be impossible for the thing to mimic. So they’re able to eliminate a few people from consideration by a simple check of their dental work. Clever stuff in its simplicity. Aside from that, the latest film is little more than a fun addition to Carpenter’s original adaptation.

The Verdict

The original novella was highly influential as a hard science horror sci-fi story. Being an isolated novella in a genre that reveres long, drawn-out serials, Campbell’s original story isn’t remembered all that well. The original RKO adaptation had some sharply moody moments about it, but the film was, as a whole, a much less sophisticated package than the work it was based on. Likely it would have been largely forgotten were it not for the subsequent early ‘80s film adaptation. John Carpenter’s 1982 film was a strikingly vivid screen adaptation of the less particular horror at the heart of Campbell’s original short story. The film did little better than break even, but Carpenter’s work has a cult following that continues to have its own niche popularity, including annual screenings by researchers stationed in Antarctica, not to mention the 2011 film that shares its title.

The odd little bit about this latest Thing is that everyone in the press seems to be referring to it as a re-make when in actuality, it’s a prequel. That combined with a kind of amorphously ambiguous marketing push will likely see this latest Thing turning less of a profit than the nearly-successful original film. Much like the creature it's based on, this is a franchise that seems to survive in a kind of shadowy anonymity - making its presence known through its influence on others.

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