John Carpenter's
WHO GOES THERE?
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD
+++THE PITCH+++
Imagine if "Deadpool" directed "The Thing". Like the 1996 satire "Scream", or Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror", my reimagined "The Thing" blends satire, nostalgia, and cinema deconstruction into a one-of-a-kind movie high. The satire as cinema love letter.
To be transparent, this "Thing" fan project was originally an older edit that I did awhile ago, for the f*** of it. So, I had released it in 'rough-cut' form weeks-ago and decided to be done with it. But after such a wonderful reception here I decided to give it the same love & attention that I gave my newer edits, and basically do a 'final-cut'.
+++SOME HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE+++
*File is now optimized and encoded at highest quality, and smallest size.
*The infamous 'lost' scene of Mac with his, ahem, love interest?!?? A blowup doll. Boy, feel weird typing all that. But that scene is now restored!! I think they cut that because it made Mac look more unstable than he already was. But in my fan-edit, I turned up the volume on his alcoholism, his psychopathy, and unstable AF personality. Again, he's the Frank Gallagher of McMurdo Station, so giving us even more reasons to question his sanity makes him a better more layered character IMAO.
*An opening title card now reads "ANTARCTICA, WINTER 1987" instead of "1982". I did this to deal with the anachronisms now present in my fan edit because of my additions. Personally, I don't care about this given that "The Thing" always felt like a bit of an Ed Wood Jr. film given Carpenter's IDGAF attitude about continuity in all his films. But it bugged me enough that I thought it couldn't hurt to change the timeline. The movie itself is 'timeless' enough that it could easily take place in '87 and no one would notice, especially with the isolation of the setting.
*A better extended Fuch's death. I never liked his death anyways. No, he didn't kill himself with a flare. lol. That was just Carpenter being lazy for whatever reason, and the product of a planned-character arc for another actor that was half-baked and never fully realized. Originally, Fuchs was supposed to be killed by *spoiler alert*
*More "things" for Mac to torch!
*And many more surprises!
+++A NEW VILLAIN+++
*Personally, I like "The Thing" being essentially this 'alien dog' or pet of sorts belonging to this 3-eyed galactic a-hole, who in my edit is now roaming the camp like an extraterrestrial Michael Myers.
So, in my version, the 3-eyed alien-pilot kills Fuchs to protect his pet "The Thing". Which is also why 'the thing' doesn't kill Clark as Clark tames this apex predator, given his experience with animals. But to account for the burnt corpse that Nauls and Mac find later on, I now added the flare catching the alien-pilot on fire.
*Better climax, with reordered shots. The ending should be less confusing. A tentacle now grabs Mac's leg as he tries to leap to safety AFTER throwing the dynamite. The overall scene is now tighter, better-paced, and fully connects with the restored stop-motion deleted footage I included. I used CGI and Topaz Video AI to redux that old stop-motion FX showing us more of the 'Blair-Thing' (i.e.where the dog appendage bursts from his chest). And I re-edited the whole scene so it now has a purpose as I think it was originally intended. The dog-appendage was meant to attack Mac but in the theatrical cut, without the stopmotion shot, it kinda just sits there and make us wonder why "The Thing" even went through the trouble of doing that. For what exactly??! For show?! To show off?!! Um, derp...dumb, no. So, again, I re-edited this scene with that restored footage to make it clearer as to WHY the Blair-Thing acts the way it does. Which, again, I think was originally-intended by makeup FX artist Rob Bottin to make the Blair-Thing look more dangerous, and have the dog-thing-appendage race over to Mac in one last effort to get him. It tried to survive anyway it can, amirite?! Which better sets up MY originally-conceived twist ending for this fan-edit...
+++FINAL THOUGHTS+++
Well, editing this was a blast!! This completes the thought for me, as far as I'm concerned about John Carpenter's movie. And overall my cut is just a funner, better, livelier movie experience-- that is now more of a roller coaster adventure, and more inline with, and reminiscent of, a good 70s high art fantasy film as was the ambition at the time. Rather than the middling 80s monster movie that is more than deserving of its status as a cult-classic but is a bit long in the tooth IMHO.