THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD
BASIC PLOT
scientist at an arctic research station discover a spacecraft buried in the ice, but they also discover some kind of strange creature frozen in the ice, but when the ice thaws all hell breaks loose, as the creature tries to kill everyone.
CAST
Kenneth Tobey as Captain Patrick
FACT
The stunt man that was used was the first ever to be set fully on fire in one scene. And he used a special helmet fixed with an oxygen mask that was one hundred percent oxygen. Which is highly combustible and just luck it didnt burn his lungs or blow up and kill him.
THOUGHTS AND BEST BITS
Well i do love one scene. When the creature comes kicking the door in and all the men inside are waiting to cover it in petrol and light its ass on fire. Mostly because when they throw the huge buckets of petrol they cover the damn set and most people. It just looks like the worst on set fire safety ever great stuff.
Ok this aint ALIENS(1986) so dont expect some cool ass xenomorph running around. We have an old black and white horror here. Opening with some airforce base in the arctic we have some airmen playing cards. When our leading man captain Hendry is called into an office and told some one has reported that an unidentified flying object was spotted. Then we have our team of airmen sent into the arctic to find the research team. And before long they soon head out to try and find what they hope me have been a flying saucer. And of course they find a huge spaceship crash landed in the ice, but when they damage it trying to uncover it theyre hopes sink as the thought of all that advanced technology are all gone. Until they spot a creature some kind of alien pilot frozen in the ice, and when they bring back a large block of ice with the creature frozen inside the men are creeped out. But when the ice thaws and the creature wakes up all hell breaks loose as the men struggle to survive.
With a bunch of actors at least back then just really starting out, but in saying that most of them are ok in there little parts. With Kennith Tobey as our main guy hes not bad as he went on to have parts in INNERSPACE(1987) and SINGLE WHITE FEMALE(1992) but they really are old school actors with that slow stop and keep still for the camera acting.
This is old school the cameras are fixed in one place when the actors talk and never expect any one to talk not facing the camera. There aint no steady cams here but with some nice simple directing the film aint bad to watch. With a nice story to follow and get sort of intriguing but really its just lacking that thing you find in any modern films action. but still worth a watch.
As a kid this is sort of fun to watch on those late nights at halloween. But as modern films go well with no effects no real creature to see no real death or great tension and almost total lack of action its not up to much. The film is such old school chilling horror. Maybe in its day this was scary and freaky the idea of a strange alien coming to earth and sucking your blood and killing you. But when youve seen ALIEN(1979) a creature that lays eggs in your belly rips you open and then has acid for blood this aint gonna do much for you.
Almost all the actors are emotionless and wooden almost like forefathers of Seagal lol and with whats feels like twenty extras waiting to get killed its almost an old version of PROMETHEUS(2012) but this is back in the days when almost no one gets killed of. And with the typical smoking is cool look. And of course our woman walking around in what looks like a cone shape bras just making me lol. It looks like something Madonna would have worn in concert. And the guy in the suit looks like Frankenstein and really its just a damn stuntman most of the time. But i do love when they just chuck buckets of petrol at him its like just crazy time with the set just catching fire and people look in real danger. But these days its just sort of a bit of fun late on to watch.
Best quote: "What if he can read minds" "hell be real mad when he reads mine"
87 mins long. cert 12. 1951.
This old flick gets 4 out of 10 on my finger scale.
