Everyone grew up with movies they watched with their family. Movies that everyone could sit in the living room on a Friday or Saturday night and watch while eating popcorn, or films that brought the family together in a way that no other thing had done previously. For most, those films strayed closer to the range of PG to PG-13 fare or — in the most extreme cases — an R rated actioner of the Arnold or Sly variety. For me it’s a bit different: for me, my family film is John Carpenter’s The Thing.
I’ve asked my dad about his experience seeing The Thing more times than I think I’ve asked him about anything else in his life. How did he meet my mother? What was it like when I was born? All of these questions are insignificant to the one I always want to talk about. Whenever I ask my dad to recount the experience, I notice a little twinkle in his eye and a small grin on his face as he recounts seeing the movie in detail: a night at the drive-in with his friend, a case of beer split between the two of them, and a mix of absolute shock and wonder at what was happening on the big screen in front of them. It’s such a simple story but it had an effect on me and it led to me looking at my dad in a whole new light. I finally realized that he was a nerd like me
The Thing was released in 1982, directed by John Carpenter and starring an absolute murderer’s row of amazing actors including Kurt Russell sporting the finest hair and beard combination ever put on screen. Along with that, the film sports some of the most astounding practical special effects and a chilling score by Ennio Morricone. With all of these factors in play, the film should have been one of the biggest box office and critical darlings of all time. That wasn’t the case.
Released on June 25, The Thing was handed the unfortunate fate of being released two weeks after another film about a visiting alien, this one a bit more friendly; Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. That film was a monster success and in its shadow, The Thing didn’t stand much of a chance: after seeing a kindhearted alien befriending a small child, a creature hellbent on assimilating the human race was a bit of a bitter pill to swallow for most audiences and critics leading to poor reviews from many esteemed critics including Roger Ebert. The movie would have more than likely disappeared from the public sphere had it not been for the advent of premium cable and the birth of the home video market.
Despite the film not being a financial or critical success in the eyes of the general public, my father would champion it and sing its praises to any who would listen. The amount of times I’ve run into people who tell me “Whenever I would go to your house, your dad would have The Thing on,” or “The first time I saw The Thing was at your parents’ house,” has to be in the high double digits. If there is a truly diehard fan of this film, it has to be my father and he wears that as a badge of honor; he was like a prophet who was initially disbelieved but subsequently proven right. It was his love for this movie that led to me discovering it, perhaps at not the most suitable age.
I had to have been about three or four years old when I first “watched” the movie. I use the quotes only because moments and scenes were not thoroughly seen but rather only partially glimpsed as my fingers covered my eyes or as I quickly attempted to get away from the horror that I was witnessing on my parent’s television screen. Seeing a head detach from a body and turn into a spider or a dog mutating into some sort of unearthly being covered in goo has that effect on a small child.
I obviously don’t blame my dad for showing me the film at such a young age, despite joking with him that it scarred me for life. He didn’t do it out of some sort of malice or any negligence. He just wanted to watch a movie that he loved and I just happened to be skipping my nap when he put it on, plain and simple. That being said, I won’t let him live down claiming that he knew Freddy Krueger and would sic him on me if I didn’t listen (but that’s a story for another time).
As I got older I built up more courage and was actually able to watch the movie without covering my eyes and, in doing so, I saw the brilliance that my dad must have seen when he first laid eyes on it back in 1982. The stark cold exteriors along with the perfectly crafted character moments make for a film that is, in my humble opinion, absolutely perfect from beginning to end.
Now, I said in the beginning that The Thing is a family picture in my household and it is without a doubt. My older siblings and I talk about this movie more frequently than I’d say we talk about any others that we’ve ever seen and we always make time to watch it either at Halloween or during the winter, when the atmosphere is just right. My mother even watches this movie, though that may be more for the aforementioned Kurt Russell and his well maintained locks.
My sister loves the film so much that she even has a tattoo to commemorate it: if that’s not a diehard fan I don’t know what is. I even introduced this to my wife early in our relationship because she and I have a mutual love for Carpenter’s other 80’s alien invasion classic, They Live and I wanted to show her what I consider my absolute favorite film in his filmography. Luckily for me she enjoyed the movie and didn’t want to end our relationship right then and there.
Even my young nephew has been inducted into The Thing viewing fold. It’s nice to know that a movie that doesn’t rely solely on spectacle and doesn’t have something flashing on the screen every five minutes (yes I realize I sound like an old fuddy duddy) still has the ability to engage a younger audience. It brings me joy to introduce a younger generation to something that was such a labor of love and done with passion and inspiration, such as it was.
There aren’t many movies that my family and I totally agree on, but with The Thing there’s just something so special about it; maybe it was seeing it at such a young age or maybe it was just the fact that my dad loved it so much and so that love somehow was transferred to me as well, who knows? Whatever it was, it’s a movie that has forever bonded me and my father and there’s no better example of how impactful this film was on our relationship than the story I’m about to tell.
A few months ago I randomly decided to stop over at my parents’ house to see them. My mom had to leave and so it was just me and my dad talking and looking at what was on TV. While scrolling through one of the countless streaming services, he came across The Thing and put it on. For the entire 109 minutes of the film’s runtime we just sat there and stared, completely enraptured by what was unfolding on the screen as if we were watching it for the first time instead of the (more likely) hundredth. Occasionally we would throw out a “wow” or “these effects still hold up,” but for the most part, we just sat and watched, letting the film work its magic on us as it had time and time before.
That’s a moment that’s going to live in my memory for as long as I live, not only because the film is still a stone cold classic but because it was just me and my dad, having a truly wonderful father/son moment together. If this was Field of Dreams, this definitely would be our “Wanna have a catch?” moment and it’s incredible to think that one movie can do something that powerful. I’m always going to be grateful to my father for introducing me to this film, even if I was too young, and I will always be thankful for him allowing me to have a glimpse inside his world, even if it was just for a few short minutes. Those few short minutes mean the world to me.
