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by Max Vetter
THING A Quarantine Horror
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hat might be the most important feature of “The Thing” regarding its staying power might be that—much like the titular monster—the film is able to adapt to interpretation like no other. While much of this is due to the text of the work, it doesn’t hurt that horror is a genre which has historically been predicated on further context. Take vampires, for example, which, given their setting, can represent wealth, sexuality, foreigners, or in Chinese vampire films… fear of jumping? My point is that good horror movie monsters rarely come without baggage, because the easiest way to connect to the fears of an audience is to prey on the ideas that already make them shiver. Which leads us to “The Thing”, which might be the greatest testament to the power of body horror ever devised. It centers on a group of researchers deep in the Antarctic who, unbeknownst to them, have just released a parasitic alien that can take the form of any living creature it consumes. While this premise already breeds tension, what truly elevates the movie to its legendary status is what happens when you expose the Thing’s secret. When the Thing gets found out, it doesn’t just revert to its original form and give up.
