Customer Reviews

The Thing (Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(250)
4 star:		(64)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Video:
For this new presentation, the video has been remastered. The quality is the best ever, so much so that it looks like it was filmed today! No more scratches or dirt specks are visible on the print.

Audio:
Very high quality sound. Digitally mastered in 5.1 Dolby Digital. All together it was an impressive presentation.

Extras:
This single disc release is packed with extras. First is a 82 minute making of documentary which is very well done and covers all aspects. Next are some deleted stop motion scenes, deleted scenes, extra space craft footage, trailers, photos, behind the scenes, and of course the excellent audio commentary by Kurt Russel and John Carpenter.

Very well made film. Even by todays standards it still stands out. The DVD is worth double dipping just for the picture quality. Guaranteed!

Rated R for strong sequences of monster viloence and gore and language

I always liked John Carpenter's The Thing, starring Kurt Russell (not Russell Crowe as erroneously stated on the product description here). It looks great on blu-ray, and as a bonus there is a pic-in-pic commentary including interviews from cast and crew along with models, designs, and storyboards. There is also an audio commentary by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. The only downside is the compressed audio (louder effects, softer dialogue). Still, fans of the film will appreciate the blu-ray clarity, which accentuates some gorgeous winter scenery, as well as some groundbreaking visual effects that otherwise could be dated, but technically hold up.

this movie is visually amazing and scares the hee bee jee bee's out of al who watch it, great acting, plot, and effects and must have for any horror or carpenter or movie fan for that matter.

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s bon service rapide expedition rapide j ai apprecie l achat que j ai fait
je vais retourner cehz amazone pour d autres achats

Okay, the special effects with the Thing were quite unrealistic - but they made me nautious. This film is really under-rated. It came out a few years after "Alien" when every filmmaker was looking to do the same thing that Ridley Scott did, make an ugly a*# looking alien. But in The Thing, it isn't the alien that's scary, it's the chilling question of who's been infected by the mutating virus. Kurt Russell gives an all-star performance and the shocks and twists and turns are quite good. Just the concept alone is excellent, it's just that Carpenter thinks by showing an incredible amount of blood he's adding to the cinematic effect - when really he's taking away from it. The actor who plays Childs is probably the most under-rated, but he can only play that one part. So if you need to gag once in a while, watch this thriller. It'll keep you on the edge of your seat.

First, let me say if you've enjoyed the highly edited TV versions
of John Carpenter's "The Thing" then you owe it to yourself to see the real version, especially letterboxed. The TV version is really "messed with" and has a fraction of the impact of the original. It's not just the gruesomely, icky FX that have been dramatically shorten but the story has also been cut-up, too.
Carpenter is maybe the most underrated of the current directors out there.(Though, and please don't hate me, but I think Halloween is one of the most overrated movies of all time) I think his films like Dark Star and Starman and In the Mouth of Madness are works of great inspiration and in the case of Starman, heart. This remake of the Howard Hawks/Christian
Nyby 1951 classic, is one the very best monster movies ever made.
As good as the '51 classic is (and it is), it's child's play compared with Carpenter's remake. This version is truer to the orginal "Who Goes There" story. In '51 I think the real story was too complex for filmmakers, so they made the story about a "super carrot" instead.
Carpenter's version boasts a real emsemble cast, many being seen here for near about the first time and many going on to very notable and productive careers. The performances are top notch all around.
The film starts very ominously with an unexplained chase across the vast arctic landscape and builds slowly till we begin to find out what has caused this seemingly aberrant behavior. Soon one of the greatest and fiercest horror stories ever is played out at the top-of-the-world. It's hard to stomach, so be forewarned, but there is much more to this movie than special effects and much more to it than the '51 classic. A foreboding rarely attained before or since in any other movie. Other films of Carpenter I would recommend are Dark Star, Prince of Darkness, Assault on Precinct 13, In the Mouth of Madness, Big Trouble in Little China, They Live and above all, one of my top 100 films of all time, an intergalactic Romeo and Juliet, an acting masterpiece for Jeff Bridges and a close-up comparable to Wild Strawberries --- Starman !!!

Buy this if you are a fan of this movie! You won't regret it!
You can't call yourself a horror/sci-fi fan if you haven't seen this.

First off, the extras are lacking somewhat as everyone is saying which is why I only gave this 4 stars instead of 5.
However, I do give the sound and video quality the highest marks for a film that was made back in the early 80s and made into bluray. It's that good of a transfer and you'll think the movie was made just yesterday. Unless you're an Uber-geek and then nothing will satisfy you.

I first saw this on video back in 1983 when I was 8. I was totally enthralled by the way the story moved so smoothly. The effects were so organic and in your face. It was during the time before the CGI masturbation we see today so you didn't have in the back of your mind "...hmmm, I wonder if that was a CG effect there..." You could just enjoy the storytelling as John Carpenter unfolded it.

If you are a fan of the movie, the high quality video will let you enjoy the ground-breaking effects by Rob Bottin (special credit to Stan Winston as well) that much more. This is the first time I was able to see the actual eyes of the "Norwegian thing" when it's revealed in the lab. It was great to be disturbed all over again!

With the high quality video, you also get to see more texture and nuances on the creatures more so (something else CGI has not convinced me of quite yet).

The camera work in "The Thing" is something I wish movies had more of today. Steady wide-shots capturing the whole scene so that you can grasp, not only the actors, but also their environment; rather than up-close-jerky camera movement trying to follow or catch up to the action which only just makes you nauseous and dizzy. The former technique is actually more effective in making the viewer themselves as part of the scene. A good example of this is the dog-kennel scene where you have the entire "Thing" in front of you, and you can look at different parts of the creature or background the way that you want to.

I believe "The Thing" is John Carpenter's best work as it touches on a subject that we can still relate to, even today. TRUST. And to a deeper degree, your sense of individuality.

Get this movie and enjoy this classic all over again!

"...there's a storm hitting us in 6 hours. We're gonna find out who's who."

Although Ignored by critics and audiences alike in its release ... John Carpenter's amazing film has become one of the most inspiring and importent movies in my life. It's very stylish very unique very scary and this and Halloween are the two scarist movies I'v ever seen I've been a big fan of movies since I was a kid and all my life I've wanted to be a director but I'm still 15 years old I know John started when he was 8 but someday It will happen I hope or I'll do music scores for movies I could do both like John but we'll see what happens anyway I love this movie I love John Carpenter as well as the Halloween films except Resurection and I was inspierd buy the same movies John was. I love this movie every time I watch the kennel scene and what the dog is a chill goes down my spine every time I watch It that dog just sitting there and stearing and Dean Cundey's lighting is scary and all of the sudden It comes out. The whole movie Is just amazing and I recommend The Thing from another world if you haven't seen it that's also an Inspiring movie in my life get the video game too It's amazing I'm a nerd and I love movies and yoy must see it my brother hated it because he thought it was sad he thought like everybody else at that time thought the emotional content was too strong the hoplessness was too strong and the monster was too strong but I love it as well as the original movie amazing a must see.

This DVD is NOT in widescreen. It is in 4:3 - with a 2.35:1 LETTERBOX.
Quite insulting considering they call this a "Collector's Edition".

The Thing is one of my favourite films of all time.
While this release contains a great collection of entertaining and informative bonuses, I would trade each and every one of these in for a true anamorphic transfer.

A poor effort Columbia/TriStar - please re-release it.

This is John Carpenter's underrated sci-fi horror classic. It is a tense, psychological thriller that never lets up and leave audience guessing to the very end. The setting, locale and ambience of the film make it one of a kind. Simply put, others may imitate it, but few can match it, and none can successfully duplicate it, except for the Thing itself.