Dec 19, 2011

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The Thing (Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. 2011)

A prequel/remake of a remake but supposedly based directly on the short story “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, Jr., this film tries hard to reach the heights of paranoia which John Carpenter’s 1982 version reached, but never truly gets there. While the effects are obviously better than in Carpenter’s film, the attempted recycling of mood never takes off because the film never decides whether it wants to generate psychological uncertainty or if it wants to revel in abject, torn-apart bodies. As a result, the film achieves neither and leaves us with a fragmented sensation.

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