Pete Moye’
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Old-school fans of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” will not be disappointed in this re-imagining of the untold back story of Carpenter’s film that delivers its own sense of horror and suspense.

The new film is not a remake of the 1982 film of the same name, but serves as a direct prequel to the film.

This year’s “The Thing” tells the story of the doomed Norwegian research camp in Antarctica shown in Carpenter film.

The film follows American paleontologist, Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), in 1982 Antarctica as she is asked to help in uncovering a crashed space ship and an alien specimen from ice, said to be 100,000 years old.

Isolated in a Norwegian scientific base, the creature escapes and starts to quickly absorb and mimic its victims one by one, putting everybody against each other through paranoia and fear.

This new story has its own set of flaws and unexpected greatness that come from telling a story with an already known ending.

By deciding to tell the story from the Norwegian camp’s point of view, the movie was already destined to come to an ending many fans could have easily predicted. The new film, however, is able to shine beyond the Carpenter film shadow, as new surprises are found in the prequel, as the copy-cat alien is shown in its original form and the audience is taken inside the crashed space ship.

Certain scenes, objects, and characters are sure to bring back memories to returning fans, as the crew working on this new film recreated the set of the camp shown in Carpenter’s film. The crew is also working backward with some of the scenes shown in the 1982 version to make it follow as closest to the little information shown in the older version.

The alien’s shape shifting ability puts everyone against each other as they all try to figure out who is human and who isn’t. A scene in which a test is conducted to reveal the aliens pays homage to the famous blood test scene in the 1982 film that delivers its own sense of suspense and dark humor.

The gruesome deaths and transformations shown are reminiscent of Carpenter’s film and are sure to satisfy any horror film junky and returning fans. Scenes showing the alien are fast paced and are able to keep your heart beating right out of your chest due to the raw sense of adrenaline and horror the film brilliantly delivers.

The ending of the film leaves a surprising sense of ambiguity and directly follows into the 1982 film during the end credits. The same music that opens up Carpenter’s film is present in the conclusion of this new film, bringing a sense of nostalgia and known doom for returning fans.

Watching the 1982 version from John Carpenter is highly suggested to make the experience even more enjoyable.

“The Thing” is sure to be one of October’s best horror films in recent memory and should definitely not be missed as a Halloween flick to catch with friends at a late screening.