The Thing : Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

Which movie do you think is better? I just rewatched both after a while and it's tough to decide, as they both have their pros and cons.

Starting off with The Thing, I feel that John Carpenter over foreshadows and gives away too much in the first act possibly. The opening shot is off a space ship, and so you immediately know the movie is about an alien. So later, when the Antarctica crew finds the spaceshift wreckage, it doesn't come as a surprise at all, since you already saw a spaceshift fly towards Earth in the opening shot.

I admit I like Predator and didn't mind the opening spaceship shot there, but with Predator, there was no spaceship found later, if I recall, so it's not like a surprise was being ruined as much, per say.

Also in The Thing, the dog is concentrated on too much, constantly observing what is going on, and looking concerned when the helicopter flies away to check out what happened. Then the dog goes into a room with a shadowy figure that looks just like Norris, in shadow shape… then the screen fades to black. So we know that something bad happened to Norris, and it therefore, is no surprise later, when Norris turns out to be one of the Things.

When Clark takes the dob back to the cage outside and locks the dog up, we see a close up shot of the dog transform, and I felt this gave away too much, too soon as well, cause we are seeing so much from the alien's perspective and less from the humans perspective.

It would have been much more mysterious and scary, if we saw it from the human's point of view. They hear the dogs barking, go outside to see what's wrong, and then see the alien holding a dog captive.

It just would have been more exciting for us to only see what the human are prevy to seeing, from their point of view, making it more mysterious.

I also feel that Blair figured out that the Thing was an imitator, way too soon. Then the whole crew knows The Thing can imitate anyone, yet they keep splitting off in separate directions instead of sticking together. It would have been more exciting if the crew didn't know until later, and was more clueless therefore.

So I feel that Carpenter just overshadows too much. Where as in Alien, they show everything from the human's point of view the whole way, which makes it a lot more mysterious and exciting in it's build up, rather than blowing it's load early per say.

However, Alien doesn't have near as sophisticated as a plot as Alien and does turn into a basic haunted house thriller formula, that is set in space. Some argue that the haunted house/slasher formula was not a cliche at the time, but the movie did come after Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so it does feel like that same formula, at least to me. Not that it's necessarily a bad formula, but it seems to abandon it's plot somewhat and then retreads to a formulaic repetition perhaps, if that makes sense.

Where as you could argue that The Thing, has much more of a guessing plot with more twists and turns, since you do not know who is what.

However, there may have been too many twists, with some of them being thrown in just for the sake of twists in The Thing, as a couple of them felt gimmicky, just thrown in their, cause the writers' could perhaps, where as the others were good.

What do you think?

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

Sigourney muff



Ding Dong! 🤡🌎

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS



😺 Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 🤨 Let's go, Brandon! 🤨 Try that in a small town.

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

If only Kurt Russell had been persuaded to replicate that shot.

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS



😺 Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 🤨 Let's go, Brandon! 🤨 Try that in a small town.

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

Alien wins it for me.

The Thing is still fucking awesome though.

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

Both are great but it’s Alien.

"I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply…evil."

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS



😺 Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 🤨 Let's go, Brandon! 🤨 Try that in a small town.

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

I can't choose between the two. I love them equally.

I hear what you're saying about too much being revealed in The Thing but there the suspense wasn't ruined by knowing there was an alien about and that it was most likely the dog. I also understand Norwegian so it was an even bigger dead giveaway that the thing was in the dog. But the suspense in that movie comes from the "when" of things, (as in, when is it going to hit the fan) and the paranoia of the "where".

I've rewatched both many times and absolutely love both of them.

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

The Thing. Alien, despite its setting, was a fairly typical monster movie and the scares were conventional hunter vs prey. The Thing was a psychological horror film where you never know who the monsters are. It could be anyone. The alien in The Thing was much creepier as well.
.

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

I love them both for different reasons and can't possibly decide which one I like best. Sitting on the fence here.

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

Are you writing an essay for school?

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

I have not seen either but know the gist of them, I like space stuff but i prefer it when space stuff comes to earth, so im going to say The Thing

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

I like both, but Alien is the best!



😺 Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 🤨 Let's go, Brandon! 🤨 Try that in a small town.

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

I love both but Alien has the edge.

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

While The Thing is a very good movie, Alien is, for lack of a better word, perfect.
To me, there is nothing that can be added or removed from the theatrical version that would make it a better movie. Point in case, the cocoon scene from the director's cut.

And replying to someone above who said the monster in The Thing was scarier, I'm sorry, but nobody has or will ever come up with such an amazing monster like the one H. R. Giger was able to. The special effects in it are also as fresh as they were in 1979, while The Thing has somewhat dated SFX.

Thank God for the bomb!

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Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

Love both movies, but I still have to go with Alien.

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

"What do you think?"

What do I think?

I think if The Thing ever combined with The Alien and came to earth we are fucked.
That is what I think.

"Please vote to preserve the unique character of Warren…" - Robert Duvall

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

Oh, This is a Really Difficult Question to answer (for me at least).

Both Movies are Fantastic!

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

I just got done watching "The Thing". I thought it was entertaining enough, but really kind of unfocused.

I love "Alien".

"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!"

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

I thought it was entertaining enough, but really kind of unfocused.
I myself am more of a Thing fan over Alien and I can understand those that may not gel or warm to it, (Man is the warmest place to hide)…, but I am interested in your "unfocused" comment.

Are you able to expand a little on this Mr. Hutch?

Norman! What did you put in my tea?

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

Okay, yes, about 30 minutes before the ending, I started thinking that the fear element in the movie was lacking because we already knew that at least one of the men had turned into the thing, and it was just a matter of time before each of them was going to get killed and since I really didn't care too much about most of the characters, it didn't matter to me whose time was up. At most, it could have had a mystery thing going for it, but even that not really because it was like everybody gets to have a turn at being the thing (except for Kurt Russell and the other guy.)

I also thought that each kill was exactly like the one that came before it. It was like vegetation was sprouting from the tops of their necks and all those worm-like things whipping themselves around. I like John Carpenter just fine, but he didn't seem to be inspired by his directing assignment here. I think that is what I meant by "unfocussed". There was no variance in pitch all throughout the film. It certainly wasn't boring, but I can't say a whole lot more than that.

The ending, I thought, was extremely abrupt and dissatisfying.

Also, I believe there were ten male characters in it and the only ones I could warm to were KR and Willford Brimley and the cute boy with the curly dark hair, the black kid on roller skates and half way the older gentleman who looked like James Arness. That's barely half. And don't get me started on Richard Masur. I must have missed the opening credits because when he first showed up, I kept thinking "that can't be Richard Masur…" - "What's Richard Masur doing in this picture?" I don't exactly dislike him, but all I can think about when I think of Richard Masur was when he appeared on "All in the Family" as the slow grocery boy and Archie calls him a "retard". Lordy.

"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!"

Re: Alien (1979) VS. The Thing (1982) SPOILERS

Thank you Mr. Hutch…☺ Your opinions always mean a lot to me.

In terms of cast, The Thing is very much a blokey picture. I have no issue with this, but I get that the relatable aspect of them is a tad lacking. Its not the same as the characters in Halloween, who were more real characters and Escape From New York, which had fun ott characters. The Thing's characters were scientists for the most part and in a sense were a tad dreary.

This would have been a somewhat realistic take though on these highly intelligent fellas who were doing research stints in the frozen southern hemisphere. They just weren't that cute either, and even Russell was very stoic and even un-sexy.

That said, I still found them more relatable than most of the characters represented in Alien, but that would have been the more outlandish setting that distracted from the characterization in Alien. I think Aliens - '86 is much stronger in character development and easier for me to digest for this reason.

I also find The Thing has more tighter wound suspense infused throughout it, than the laborious and even ponderous set-up and shocks of Alien. Carpenter wanted the screws tighter and tighter and I'd say his objective was to keep that tempo running, or if he could achieve it. I'd say he pretty much achieved what his intention was for the most part.

The Thing's pièce de résistance are the practical gruesome make-up effects which were very much groundbreaking for its time. More so than what was represented in Alien. Each takeover/death did try to make it appear a little different from the last in representation. The first one being from a dog, which attacked the other dogs and then worked its way through the station crew. I found it all incredibly inventive and saw it several times upon first release as a kid.

The Thing also contains one of my ultra squeamish moments in cinema, when they are cutting their thumbs with a scalpel to draw test blood. It gets me every time.

Carpenter had to balance the effects with human element/condition in this situation and considering the setting, it wasn't an easy task. The film constantly had me wondering what was going on with some of the characters, who was really who and who was a replicant of their former self.

The science fiction aspect I found a bit hollow, because if The Thing's intention was to take over and wipe-out every other lifeform, what then when this was all achieved? What was it going to do, sit on a condo balcony somewhere in Hawaii overlooking a volcano and ocean, drinking cocktails and admiring completion of its assimilation?

I liked the ending, because the two best characters were left alive, but who were they really? I guess it may have been left open that way for a sequel.

Perhaps you came too late to the film, or you needed to see it around the time of release. I think as a 12yr old boy in the US, you may have enjoyed it more as a nostalgia film if you had an adult to take you. It was R16 where I saw it and parental guidance on age restricted films was not a thing in NZ. Still isn't for the most part. The age is the age and above only. I was underage by a year, but still managed to get in by lying.

Norman! What did you put in my tea?
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