John Carpenter's re-make of the 1951 classic The Thing From Another World (1951) (also based on John W. Jr Campbell's short story Who Goes There?). Readers who have seen both movies and read the story on which it is based maintains that Carpenter's version is more true to its source.
Moviegoers who have seen neither the original movie nor read the story will see an Alien clone set in the Antarctic wasteland as Kurt Russell and others in a research station battle a vicious shape-changing alien. Great locales, dark settings, Ennio Morricone's pulsing soundtrack (in imitation of the music Carpenter usually writes for his own movies), yucky make-up effects make this all technically well made.
The ending is suitably downbeat, and John Carpenter (John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981), Halloween) makes effective use of his source material - there is a real sense of paranoia (after all, the alien could be any of the men at the research station) and real tension hanging over the onscreen proceedings.
Review by James O'Ehley from The
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