The Thing [4K UHD]

The movie itself is five stars, one of the best sci-fi horror films ever made. The 4K transfer on this UHD DISC is excellent on every level. There were previous 4K releases by other studios, but this Paramount release, in my opinion, is by far the best. So many 4K movies can be way too bright, or lack a classic film texture. This 4K of THE THING by Universal is the best this movie has ever looked! Amazing amounts of detail, and color. I remember this movie as a dark,, murky looking film. It is not. This is movie is beautifully shot and now, thanks to this disc, full of color! The black levels are dark, but full of detail and the whites are never bleached out. The sound is nicely mixed with big explosions that never over-power dialogue. I never once had to adjust the volume while watching this film (the way I do for so many overly-loud mixed films.) Wish it had more extras, but i found the making-of documentary to be really good, as well as the commentary track by John Carpenter and Kurt Russel. Buy this 4K over the Blu-ray or the DVD. You'll be glad you did! And if you don;t have a 4K player, what are you waiting for?

BOTTOM LINE: It's an easy 5 STAR rating for the intense motion picture horror experience that is John Carpenter's THE THING. The abysmally disappointing Universal barebones Blu-ray is a 2 STAR turd. Don't bother. Pick up the Shout!Factory Blu instead. Their release is what fans deserve and have been wanting. 5 STARS for Shout!'s Blu-ray! Terrific thrills, chills and flat out shocks fill this frosty fright flick to the icy rafters. John Carpenter gives us what many consider to be his very best film. (I'd modify that statement and say it's his best science fiction film. His best horror work is still the original HALLOWEEN, while his best action film is ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13. As always, IMHO/YMMV.) I am among those that love THE THING. I've been an enthusiastic fan of this film and John Carpenter since I first caught it during its debut on cable way back in the day. The barren, brutal and bloody frights of THE THING were unleashed into theaters a mere two weeks after the snuggly hug-fest of Steven Spielberg's E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, and I think a lot of film goers back then were simply not prepared for the senses-shocking visceral horrors that Carpenter and his crew were set to spring on them. In fact, even without ET's cuddly competition, I'm not sure THE THING would have been a box office hit. THE THING was just too far ahead of its time. 25+ years later and it has lost none of its power to shock, make you jump and squirm in your seat. SPFX artist extraordinaire Rob Bottin's incredibly twisted creature designs and disgustingly awesome motion-controlled props & make-ups still physically and psychologically repulse and fascinate the viewer all these decades later. This film is stuffed to the gills with some of THE best examples of beautifully grotesque movie effects ever seen. Give me wonderfully-realized practical effects like the ones on display here ANY day over the ocean of computer-generated stuff. Every cast member gives us a top flight performance; no half-hearted acting to be found here. Kurt Russell makes you instantly forget there ever was a Dexter Riley, with his subtle yet most definitely in-charge role as laconic chopper pilot R.J. MacCready. Charles Hallahan, Keith David, Richard Dysart and especially Wilford Brimley all turn in A-list work in their various supporting roles. Establishing himself as an acting force to be reckoned with, Brimley gives us an unforgettable, multi-layered performance as the slowly disintegrating Blair. And a special call-out to long-time character actor Donald Moffat as the bewildered, beleaguered and undoubtedly in over his head Antarctic outpost commander, Garry. Moffat gives us what is arguably the greatest line reading in the history of talking motion pictures with his "couch" speech. His vocal firepower is the equivalent of a howitzer in this scene and once you've heard it you'll never forget it. LOL. This 1982 remake, based on John Campbell's fantastic 1938 short story "Who Goes There?" hews much closer to the source material than the previous movie incarnation, the classic Howard Hawks 1951 version of THE THING (FROM ANOTHER WORLD). Carpenter's film is every bit as impressive and iconic as Hawks' version is, though for drastically different reasons. Hawks' THING combines a fantastic cast of characters who, despite initially being at-odds with one another on how best to deal with their alien visitor, eventually band together to battle the terrifying extraterrestrial, (a super-intelligent plant-based lifeform that could conceivably pollinate the entire planet with its deadly spores, instantly knocking mankind to the bottom of the food chain). Hawk's THING = US against THEM. The fear in Carpenter's version, (much like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS), comes from being unable to know for certain just exactly WHO or WHAT the enemy is; no person, (in fact no living thing), can be trusted. Carpenter's THING = ME against EVERYTHING. Carpenter's remake remains one of THE best on-screen examples of paranoia-fueled terror ever lensed, pure & simple. The 1982 version of THE THING is one of those rare occurrences when the remake of a classic movie is every bit as good as the original. Both versions are absolute "must-owns," fully deserving a spot on every movie (and especially sci-fi/horror) fan's video library shelf. BLU-RAYS... The Universal Blu-ray of THE THING is a major let-down. None of the excellent bonus features from the previous Collector's Edition DVD have been ported over to this Blu-ray version, save the audio commentary by John Carpenter & Kurt Russell. Nothing new was produced for this Blu-ray either. That's a damn shame no matter how you look at it. Instead of an ultimate, reference-quality release, you just get a new format version that in all honesty isn't any better than the previous format. Neither the picture nor the sound are much improved from DVD. Universal really dropped the ball with this release. A travesty for Carpenter fans and basically the home video equivalent of a kick in the nuts to those, like myself, who were hoping for at least a worthwhile picture & sound upgrade even if no goodies were included. As I say, the audio & video are somewhat better but not THAT much. If you already own Universal's "Collector's Edition" DVD then I cannot recommend double-dipping for this Blu-ray. UPDATE>>> Forget the craptastic Universal Blu-ray. Pick up a copy of Shout!Factory's new Blu-ray and see how this SHOULD have been handled by those knuckleheads at Universal. The Shout! Blu is a terrific 2-disc offering that is worlds better than Universal's. The transfer, first & foremost, is amazing. Super sharp focus, bringing out a ton of details not seen in any previous format release. The picture looks clear, clean and is free of artifacting, pixelation, edge enhancement, and only the slightest amount of crush (video noise). The crew at Shout! affected a 2k scan of the film's interpositive, overseen by the Director of Photography, Dean Cundey. It looks amazing. The blacks are solid & inky and the mid-tones are firm and strong. Audio is clear, clean and the soundmix is level. There is a wealth of superb bonus content for fans of this great film. Shout! knows how to please. In addition to the best original stuff ported over from previous versions, there are lots of new goodies; some on Disc #1 (Feature Film) and the rest spread out over Disc #2 (Special Features). Bravo! This is the release THING fans have been clamoring for. Wait no longer. Order yours today!

Movie 1 of 1982 and 91 overall in my journey through films of my lifetime. When I started this retrospective "The Thing" was a movie I had in mind as justification for the effort. From the outset I'll just say that this movie exceeded my expectations by bounding degrees. I could not have begun to imagine that this movie was this good. In the first season of "The X-Files" there was an episode that mimicked "The Thing" and I really didn't like that episode. In fact I never watched another episode of "X-Files" to this day. So when the prospect of watching "The Thing" came up I passed. My history with this movie doesn't end there though. In the 80's that family I spoke of in a different, earlier review had cable on all day. I would see scenes from "The Thing" on there periodically and it scarred the heck out of me. The practical effects are great even today but back them, as a child, it looked like a documentary. The highest compliment I can give this movie is that it is just a great story. I'm so dissapointed to read that it was a flop but at least it withstood the test of time. The sound effects and music were great for any time period. I was expecting dated synth but it was far from it. There may have been synth but it was so well done I didn't notice. Another compliment I'll pay this is that it's the best Lovecraft inspired film I've ever seen. I recently saw "The Color Out of Space" with Nicolas Cage and it was abysmal in my opinion. It suffered from similar issues but where they differ greatly is the quality of the story telling. So what criticisms could I share? Well I'm not a fan of the UFO at the beginning. In fact I think it proves my point I made in "Escape from New York" that Carpenter has a raw imagination. This can be a good thing too but I'm listing this as a bane. Why did we absolutely have to know that the creature was a space alien? It would have enhanced the story to leave the origins of the creature to the imagination of the audience. Another issue I had is directoral. Shot after shot lingered far too long on the creature. Again, imagination is the key and the effects would have looked even better in flashes, hints, and suggestions. I remember my dad explaning (years before "The Thing") what made "Jaws" so scary: you never saw the shark. My dad was right and I'm kind of surprised Carpenter didn't understand that. These are small gripes though. The good far exceeds the bad in this movie. Pros -great story -Lovecraftian feel -horror done right -incredible special effects Cons -over explains -lingering shots of effects A note on computer scenes in 70's and 80's movies. Still an area where the public knew so little that the imagination could run wild for film makers. The scene where the computer is diagramming and calculating the alien infection is almost nonsensical to me. I laughed out loud because this computer, in the middle of Antarctica, is the most advanced AI ever conceived. Story, especially cinematic story, needs gravity and the computer scene was creative exposition to accomplish this. One could get away with this back then but I'm very curious what a younger person today would thinking about this scene. We are aware now that computers just don't work this way. We still do this today to one degree or another though. Computer modeling is done for predicting virus outbreaks to weather changes. These models are far more often wrong than right and yet our imaginations make us think they have credence. It would be folly to laugh too hard at their efforts back then because we still hold computers to unrealistic standards.

O melhor filme do John Carpenter e um dos melhores filmes de terror na minha opinião. Essa edição 4K está impecável, para quem não tem a TV certa, ou aparelho para rodar em 4K, também vem com o Bluray normal.

Llegó sin ningún detalle y rápido al otro día, es una excelente versión , se ve espectacular en pantalla 4k , trae un documental donde el director y todos los involucrados en la película cuentan el proceso de creación, todo subtitulado en español

Oubliez le prequel/reboot et jetez vous sur ce monstre du film fantastique/horreur qu'est The thing, paranoïa et effets gores mais surtout et toujours John Carpenter épaulé par kurt russell

One of my all time favorite movies added to my collection. Can't imagine what the audience in 1982 felt like, definitely were not ready for it. Didn't succeed at the time but became a cult classic and continues to live on. Great cast with a great storyline filled suspence and gore. Featuring awesome makeup and special effects for it's time plus a killer soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. Highly enjoyable in hi-def picture and sound.

Item delivered in mint condition! Thank you