When I saw John Carpenter's The Thing for the first time I was a mere slip of a boy, managing to sneak into X (now 18) films with my mate Frank who looked far older than I did. I knew little about The Thing beyond it was a remake of an old black and white horror/science fiction movie which I'd seen on TV and was directed by the guy who'd made Halloween, The Fog, Dark Star, Escape From New York and Assault On Precinct 13 and who I was a massive fan of at the time. This was in the pre-internet days when my film info came mainly from the pages of Starburst and Starlog magazines. Pretty much all the pre-publicity I'd seen for The Thing amounted to a small black-and-white photo of Kurt Russell with an icy beard. That was it. I mean, I knew Rob Bottin has done the creature effects, but I didn't have a clue what was in store for me. Maybe Kurt Russell was the monster?
Settling down to see The Thing in a packed cinema on opening night, the film began with a spaceship heading towards earth, followed by the cool title sequence, and then a Husky racing across the ice pursued by a helicopter, accompanied by Ennio Morricone's pulsing electronic score.
"Was that the thing?" the audience began whispering.
Boy, were we wrong.
I mention this only because the red band trailer for The Thing prequel has gone online and, as is the form with trailers nowadays, it shows EVERYTHING. Creature shots, transforming characters, the lot. I gave up after 20 seconds, fearing every surprise being spoiled for me.
Watch it if you want here. I'll wait for the movie.
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