The Thing: Terror Takes Shape (1998) (V)

Director:

Michael Matessino

Writer:

Michael Matessino (writer)

Release Date:

1998 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

A revealing and insightful look into the making of this underrated horror film. |

Cast

John Carpenter	...	Himself
Kurt Russell	...	Himself
Rob Bottin	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dean Cundey	...	Himself
David Foster	...	Himself
Charles Hallahan	...	Himself
Peter Kuran	...	Himself
Bill Lancaster	...	Himself
John J. Lloyd	...	Himself
Richard Masur	...	Himself
Joel Polis	...	Himself
Todd C. Ramsay	...	Himself
Susan Turner	...	Herself
Albert Whitlock	...	Himself
Stan Winston	...	Himself

Also Known As:

John Carpenter's The Thing: Terror Takes Shape (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

USA:83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Company:

Universal Studios Home Video

Movie Connections:

References Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)

Excellent documentary on an excellent film

This is featured on the DVD version of The Thing, which I recently bought myself a copy of. Since the DVD(apart from one of my favorite Carpenter films, that is) didn't feature an awful lot of well-produced material, it was nice to see such a well-done(if ever-so-slightly gimmicky... how many different ways can you utilize the title card of the original film to create chapter names for a behind-the-scenes program?) documentary. I can tell you right away that for any fan of John Carpenter and The Thing, this alone is worth getting a DVD that features it. This features a high number of interviews with people who worked on the film, and many revealing and interesting tidbits within them. Actors talking about motivation, special effects people explaining their work and crew going into detail(without becoming overly technical, so as to not confuse viewers who don't know about film-making)... yes, as many other behind-the-scenes and other "this is how we did this and that on this particular film"(such as commentary tracks), there is a bit of love-fest going on... but it never becomes dominant. Rather, the whole thing is a nice mix of "it's fun to work with these people" and "how we did this was.../the basic concept here was..." It's never too much of either. The pace is quite good, never losing your interest. With a running time of nearly 90 minutes, the length of many feature films, this covers just about everything you ever wanted to know about The Thing, and never dwells too long or slows down to where the viewer starts getting bored. I'd have to say the high point for me in this was Rob Bottin... he did just about all of the special effects, and he's a blast to listen to and watch. A comic book fan who was in his early twenties when he worked on the film, he's got a certain manic enthusiasm to him. Very entertaining to look at, for both the anecdotes and the information about effects. I recommend this to any fan of John Carpenter and The Thing. Great stuff. 10/10