As I may not who I appear to be, allow me to take over.
Warning. Mature content.
Viewer discretion is advised.
John W. Campbell Jr's 1938 novella
Who Goes There?* was first adapted in 1951 as
The Thing from Another World.
*Inspired by Lovecraft's
At the Mountains of Madness, first published in Astounding Stories in 1936.
Next up was
Horror Express in 1972.
Written word was then adapted in issue 1 of comic
Starstream.
After John Carpenter's seminal remake, we got:
The Thing (2002 video game sequel to remake)
The Thing (2011 prequel to remake)
Holy shit!
Would it have broken hearts to call respective works something different?
Obviously.
Lazy bastards.
How about The Thing Aftermath and The Thing Awakens?
If only they asked me...
It's worth mentioning
The Thing II was a cancelled video game sequel to The Thing (2002), so in reality, if project came to fruition, shit would have been The Thing III.
Let's delve very deep.
Video game
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| As with Jaws Unleashed, cover art was the same as DVD. |
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| Dog Beast is loosely based on the Kennel-Thing. |
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| As you'd expect, Walkers are pretty nippy. |
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Upon seeing nearby carnage, Williams pukes up.
Dirty boy. |
Whitley becomes end boss.
Several nods are made to
1982 film.
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| Mac's tape recorder is found. |
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Bravo team refers to Norwegians as Swedes and Blake corrects them.
In an ironic role reversal, Mac frequently made this error, and was put straight by Copper. |
Faraday vs John Carpenter
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Blake: "Now I'm gonna show you what I already know."
Just before dipping hot needle into blood, Mac says:
"Now I'll show you what I already know." |
When endorsing game, main man stated events are canonical.
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| Childs' body is found, who obviously died of hypothermia. |
So after 20 years of intense speculation, geezer was human after all.
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| MacReady helps destroy Whitley and rescues Blake. |
On 23 November 2012, Carpenter tweeted "Yes, one of them (Mac or Childs) was a thing."
WHAT?
Make up your fucking mind.
Prequel
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| Not terrible by any means, but still a pale imitation. |
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| Juliette-Thing attacks Karl. |
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| Wolner and Finch fused together. |
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| Sander-Thing's toothy vagina bites the dust after swallowing grenade. |
Video games
Flame Thrower and
Station Survival promoted CG-heavy film.
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The Thing: The Northman Nightmare
Set hundreds of years before film, norsemen make an unpleasant discovery. |
Oh yeah.
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| Edvard's centipede arm face fucks Jonas. |
Which looks nothing like Whitley's
CG reveal.
(Mouth drops).
Now for the big one.
Remake
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| Man is the warmest place to hide |
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| Alan Dean Foster's novel sticks closely to film, but features a number of changes. |
For example:
Windows is renamed Sanders.
The remains of Split-Face found at the Norwegian camp is burned before it can infect anybody.
Rather than burning himself, Fuchs is killed by the Thing with an axe.
Palmer-Thing kills Copper instead of Sanders.
When attacked outside by the Blair-Thing, Childs is blown away by the storm, but Mac and Nauls make it back inside.
Climax is radically different.
Sanders is killed by the Blair-Thing in the kitchen while he attempts to barricade facility's doors. It then attacks the rec room, killing Garry, and corners Nauls in the rest room, where he commits suicide by driving a wooden splinter through neck. Mac ultimately destroys monster by blowing up several canisters of hydrogen.
When Childs and Mac reunite outside, they play a game of chess.
Bits and bobs
In
Halloween, Tommy and Laurie are watching Howard Hawks' original.
What happened next is history.
Although unrelated in terms of plot, characters etc, The Thing is the first part of 'Apocalypse Trilogy', and was followed by Prince of Darkness (1987) and In the Mouth of Madness (1995).
All were heavily influenced by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
In 2017, a board game was released.
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| The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 |
Comics
The Thing from Another World
Dark Horse picks up 24 hours after film.
Story continues in
Climate of Fear.
For shits and giggles.
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| Both were collected in trade paperback form. |
Eternal Vows wrapped shit up.
Issues 13-16 contained alternate sequel
Questionable Research, which ignored all that went before and the first not to feature Mac or Childs.
Poster
Television
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| Welcome to My Nightmare (Amazing Stories) |
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| Made for Each Other (Miami Vice) |
Stranger Things was just greedy.
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| The Vanishing of Will Byers |
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| The Monster |
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| The Upside Down |
Film
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| Brigsby Bear |
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| Bumblebee |
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| Scream 4 |
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| The Dead Don't Die |
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| The Squid and the Whale |
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| White Noise: The Light |
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The Mist
We can also see reproductions of The Shawshank Redemption and Pan's Labyrinth. Also, Gunslinger from The Dark Tower is on display. |
Miscellany
Apart from ripping off key elements of Ringo Lam's City on Fire, whole 'trust' scenario in
Reservoir Dogs owes a huge debt to Carpenter's film.
Also, (apart from starring Kurt Russell of course), parts of Ennio Morricone's unused music is heard in post-Civil War drama
The Hateful Eight.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
At Outpost 32 (yes not 31) in Antarctica, Ghidorah is awoken from frozen slumber.
Upon clamping eyes on gargantuan hydra, a solider exclaims "You gotta be fucking kidding!"
Man of Steel
Kryptonian ship is said to have been buried in the ice for
x amount of years.
Harbinger Down (UK title Inanimate)
Peeps find a Soviet moon lander buried under the ice. They discover its cargo have been mutated by cosmic radiation, giving tardigrades the ability to shapeshift.
Guess what year moon lander crashed?
Yeah, 1982.
(Laughs).
In terms of modern day throwbacks to 80's body horror, there is no better example than
The Void.
Here look.
Deliciously grotesque.
Mixing things up, Carpenter's work inspired
X-Files episode
Ice.
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| Professor Farnsworth casually swallows a human whole in Futurama episode Murder on the Planet Express. |
Title sequence
Animation cell was placed behind a fish tank filled with smoke, which was covered with a rubbish bag. It was then ignited, creating the effect of 'title' burning onto the screen.
Ingenius.
This is true for both 1951 original and remake.
Albeit using modern day techniques, others were influenced.
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| Death Note (2017) |
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| The Final Girls |
Kennel-Thing
Dart (Stranger Things)
Phantoms
Spider-Thing
It Chapter Two
Richie (Bill Hader) is given the honor of quoting Palmer's iconic line.
Split-Face
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
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| Lucas in DLC Not a Hero. |
Slither (2006) is immediately comparable to Night of the Creeps and Shivers, but it's pretty difficult not to hold a torch for James Gunn's debut.
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| Asteroid hurtling towards Earth is reminiscent of how spaceship entered atmosphere. |
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| With Antarctica behind him, R.J. MacReady moved to South Carolina and opened Wheelsy's only Auctioneers & Funeral Home. |
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| Surname is obvious, but first name of Mayor Jack MacReady is named after Kurt Russell's character Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China. |
Director would go on to cast Russell as the baddie in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Overwatch
In the
Ecopoint map, we should find:
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| MacReady |
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| Chess Mage |
Cheating bitch.
And.
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| Mayor MacCready (Fallout 3) |
Why did they alter spelling?
Err.
I end on a very odd note.
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| Near the start of prequel, cave houses a curious detail. |
Snow/ice formation looks almost identical to
head belonging to probaby the most famous movie monster in cinema history.
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| Alien |
Happy accident?
We'll never know.
Personally, I blame the first goddamn week of winter.
