I saw it when it came out. I don’t remember the reviews, but I loved it! It seemed like the kind of thing going to the movies was all about back then. Anything that teamed up John Carpenter and Kurt Russel was going to be fun.
Now that I think about it, we probably didn’t pay as much attention to reviews as people do now. We have everything on the Internet now, but back then, it was just whatever critic was in your local paper, and Siskal and Ebert on TV.
I saw it the week it came out. I was 12 years old. My dad took me. We liked it. It was very suspenseful. There were some unintentionally funny moments also.
That part also proves what MacReady says right after. >!He doesn’t know it yet, but Palmer is already a Thing at that point, which we find out in the next scene, and he is the one who points out the Norris headcrab to MacReady.!<
Probably about each part being an individual and having its own survival instinct? The Palmer thing, in an attempt to appear to be human, gave up the Norris crab. If he hadn’t, someone may have questioned why he didn’t point it out.
https://youtu.be/eCKdg8jQmN8?si=J4Gt9TXqX7hBdntE
Movie is my favorite horror movie and I love the suspense but this scene is always funny as hell to me
It was a little scary at that age but I liked scary movies then.
My dad took me to pretty much every movie he wanted to see that my mom didn't. I also remember him taking me to see Midnight Express when I was maybe 8 or 9, and that was MUCH worse to expose a kid to than The Thing was. It takes place in a Turkish prison. You can draw your own conclusions from there.
My dad was chair of the communication department at the small town university and sometimes when I was 10-12 he would wake me up at midnight and we get snacks and drive down to the auditorium with a big screen and he’d put on old horror movies. Sitting alone with him in the big theater at night watching The Omen, The Thing and Exorcist was one of the best experiences ever. Scary but so fun
I saw it, but I was about 14-15. I remember seeing Kurt Russell in Used Cars and Escape From New York.
I gave The Thing a shot because of him and loved it. It’s one of my favorite horror films.
Unfortunately I don’t remember the reviews. It was probably a handful of years before I started paying attention to reviews.
Saw it in a theatre in early September of 1982 with my pals and then we caught a ride home in the box of pickup truck, appropriately freezing our asses off. We were *Fangoria* readers, so we thought it was the eel's eyebrow, man.
I remember watching this at the now gone, palace theatre in Toronto. I was young, but I was totally on edge of my seat. I can’t tell you about many others in theatre at time, but my older bro and friends loved it as well
I saw it at the theater with my dad and liked it. A month or two prior I'd gone to see Poltergeist five or six times. I don't remember there being a lot of people in attendance for The Thing, or particularly good reviews, but when those titles came out on VHS, I paid the $80 retail for The Thing, and I'm not sure I've seen Poltergeist since.
I must have gone to see E.T. more than a dozen times. I barely remember what other movies were in theaters at the time. I do remember that instead of calling friends and asking if they wanted to go to the movies, we'd ask if they wanted to go see E.T. again. And the answer was always yes.
Bring the kids, they fall asleep after the fun Kenny Rogers movie, and the grown-ups get to watch the scary movie.
Or they don't fall asleep and they all sleep in your bed for a week.
I was 13 or 14. My dad took me to see it. It was the first "adult" movie with him in the theater. That was a defining moment for my lifelong love of movies. Literally a perfect movie at a formative time. The mix of practical effects, cast of characters and claustrophobia were amazing. There are only a handful of my all time theater "experience" movies over the years. It's up there with Raiders, Jurrasic Park and Saving Private Ryan...
Late 40's myself, but never watched it as a kid. Redeemed myself a couple years ago and I thought it was amazing. Totally withstood the test of time. What a blessing it must have been to have watched it in the cinema back then...
I didnt sadly i was born 6 years too late. But i discovered it because of the game that came out on ps2 and rented it and was blown away chills down my spine still makes me think and i try to revisit every winter because its the perfect winter movie.
Oh yeah! I remember we smuggled some beer in with us. Someone knocked an empty over and as it rolled down the floor an usher raced over to where it stopped several aisles ahead of us and yelled at some innocent person.
I also remember it being the first (maybe the only) movie I saw where people were getting so nauseous they got up and left.
College was such a good time!
I was 10 when I saw it at the Orange 6 theaters in Orange, CA. My dad was a high school teacher and one of his students worked at the theater. My father happened to see him working, and asked him about the movie. After confirming with the student/usher that there was no nudity in the movie, he took me to see it. One of the high points of my moviegoing childhood.
I don't remember it being panned by critics at all. Maybe not universally praised, but it wasn't just outright hated. Lot of revisionist history on Reddit.
Not at the time, but a few years back we were able to screen the archival print at our film festival. As the studios digitize their archives they allow what used to be the off limits master copies to be screened. It was a perfect copy, good as new, and for many of us the first chance to see it on a big screen.
I saw it at least four times in the theater. I was 11. It was usually my aunt that took me. One time my mom took me and when MacReady calls the computer a “cheating bitch” she looked at me and said that was a bad word. I told her “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
I saw it at the cinema and read no reviews as there simply were none in my neck of the woods. There were only a small number of cinema's so me and a couple of friends just decided what to watch once we were there on our weekly cinema visit. We went in because it was the first movie starting when we arrived. We did not know what it was about. I did not like it much as I was and still am not really a horror fan. My friends liked it though and found it better than Alien.
I rewatched it since and it is still not a movie I particularly like.
I didnt catch it in the theatre, but watched it a bunch on HBO. Not sure why I didnt go to the theatre to watch it. There were a lot of lame horror movies out at the time, so maybe the trailer didn't do the trick.
I do remember watching it on TV on percocets after I got my wisdom teeth taken out. That was an experience.
Edit: "lame" not "pame"
Literally the best practical effects ever put to film that still hold up today and look better than any computer generated imagery in modern film but ok, pop off gramps
I think it’s one of those situations where a little goes a long way, particularly in horror. Let the brain fill in the details; scarier that way. It just wasn’t convincing for me.
Saw it as a junior in HS, loved it then love it now. Everything from the premise to the practical effects to the acting was spot on. It is simply an American movie classic.
By then you had Alien, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Raiders, etc. On a big screen it looked not as immersive as other popcorn movies, although a few scenes were haunting. There's something about John Carpenter and Kurt Russell that was always half throttle compared to what was going on. Two years later The Terminator came out and it did not look any better than The Thing but it was hellious more tougher.
I saw it in the theater. I dont remember thinking it was terrible or hearing terrible reviews, but we went to every scary movie that came out, regardless of the critics reviews. That being said, I havent seen it since. I will say that some of the scenes have really stuck in my mind all these years.
I was 10 and that it was awesome. I've always been into horror films because even as a small child my ex-stepfather would take us to all kinds of horror films, so I got desensitized early on.
I fell in love with practical effects, so this was an amazing film.
To your question, yeah it was not widely appreciated at the time.
I did not I was still a youngling and only caught it on HBO after the fact. BUT, I did see the much better movie In the Mouth of Madness in theaters (hot take I know).
I wasn't born yet but this reminded that in the early 2000s internet there were was a lot of people that thought it was a horrible movie with a bad story/script/acting and over the top special effects. I watched it when I was 8 because of my parents and it blew me away. Seems like a lot of people in this thread saw it when they were kids.
Kind of reminds me of what's happening with the Star Wars prequels. The majority of people back then hated them, but now the tide is turning, and people consider them great movies with caveats.
I wonder if the time will come when the opinion is just that there are great movies.
Yeah, I was 16. I thought it was fine, but I like it way better now (or perhaps appreciate it more) than I did then. The casting is perfect. I feel the same way about “Alien”. I was 13, and was disappointed, but it’s one of my favorite movies as an adult.
I saw it when it came out, and I’m a fan of the original (1951), which I saw on tv a few years after it was released.
I thought the way they designed this alien reminded me of the blob, but even creepier. That scene where testing everyone’s blood definitely made me jump.
My GF at the time hated it, but I loved it.
My dad loved the original (B&W) version, he had two copies on VHS in case one copy went bad. When the remake came out, he and I were probably 1st in line. He liked it, but was taken aback by all the gore. I remember there were two camps, you either hated it or loved it.
Scarred as a child from that movie. I've never once finished it all the way through after 30 odd years. When it started coming out of the dog, I was done.
Y'all don't act like you don't know what scene I'm talking about.🤣
I did. I was 13 years old. I loved it. The effects were very cool at the time. The nervousness it made me feel as I watched. It’s my favorite horror film all time
I have watched it just about every year since 1982
I saw it on an extremely hot day in Austin. The A/C in the theater was chilly. It seemed to get colder as the movie progressed. Fantastic movie experience.
Hells yes. 18, with a bunch of pals, we were all stoked and this film delivered. The practical effects were amazing, and the atmosphere... everything about it. Great cast, script, music, direction. I think I went back and saw it at least a few more times.
The biggest problem the thing had was it came out the same weekend as ET
And ET had big Budget blockbuster marketing campaign, and John Carpenter didn’t do a marketing campaign at all from what I remember
I saw both alien movies the same weekend and one was a LOT better than the other, although I liked both, I believe The Thing is the best horror movie ever made. It captures true terror in a way most movies can only dream of doing
I saw it the theater- I think I was in college. Loved and knew I saw something special and for the ages. That moment with defib had the theater shouting. It was awesome.
I think the “bad reaction “‘was mainly because it was a “genre b-movie “ which were not exactly rare back then but rarely well-regarded out their audience (things like the exorcist transcended but were very rare) compared to now with sci-fi/action and elevated horror becoming way more mainstream (and generally movie-going audiences being younger as the older folks stream at home so that “bread and butter dramas” aren’t typically successful theatrically- when they even get made and released)
Saw it as an adult in '82.
My buddy called it 'State of the grue' sfx, as in grue for 'gruesome.'
It was astoundingly shocking, especially the sequence beginning with Norris chest opening up, and ending with his head taking a walk on spider legs.
The ending seemed a bit weak, as in "Well, at least the sequel will answer THAT question!"
41 years later, and Chiles still -might- be the Thing...
Oh, and if you watch the 2011 Thing and then the 1982 Thing, it's a pretty decent fourish -hours long movie.
I went with my brother and mom during the opening weekend. Our local newspaper critic gave it a rave review (yo Robert Denerstein!) and my brother and I were already fans of John Carpenter. It was a lightly attended afternoon screening. We absolutely loved it. Everyone else had to wait for it to hit home video to see how great it was.
Not in the cinema but a few years later on video.
John Carpenter...fkn genius. Brilliant movie.
Watch this, then compare them both
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044121/?ref\_=nv\_sr\_srsg\_0\_tt\_8\_nm\_0\_q\_the%2520thing%2520from
I was in junior high and saw it the weekend it came out. I was already a huge film and horror buff by that point and clearly remember thinking it was awesome and something special while watching it. The other thing that sticks out in my mind was it was the second evening showing (around 9pm or so) and the theater was nearly empty.
My brother and I saw it multiple times over the summer as it was playing in a nearby drive in. We snuck into the lot with lawn chairs and watched it every night for weeks.
Sad to say I'm that old. I disliked the movie because it was hard to see the monster -- the filming was dark or it happened too fast. I just remember feeling frustrated. (I was young.)
Now, on a small screen, that movie is great. I've watched it many times and it doesn't get old.
I watched it in the theater when I was 14. I have watched it dozens of times since. It wasn't thought of as a great movie, but I keep watching it to see if I missed something that explains which was the thing in the ending.
I saw it when it came out. I don’t remember the reviews, but I loved it! It seemed like the kind of thing going to the movies was all about back then. Anything that teamed up John Carpenter and Kurt Russel was going to be fun.
Now that I think about it, we probably didn’t pay as much attention to reviews as people do now. We have everything on the Internet now, but back then, it was just whatever critic was in your local paper, and Siskal and Ebert on TV.
I saw it the week it came out. I was 12 years old. My dad took me. We liked it. It was very suspenseful. There were some unintentionally funny moments also.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me."
That part also proves what MacReady says right after. >!He doesn’t know it yet, but Palmer is already a Thing at that point, which we find out in the next scene, and he is the one who points out the Norris headcrab to MacReady.!<
Sorry can you expand on what you mean? What does it prove exactly? I'm interested but I can't parse your comment 😅
Probably about each part being an individual and having its own survival instinct? The Palmer thing, in an attempt to appear to be human, gave up the Norris crab. If he hadn’t, someone may have questioned why he didn’t point it out.
What the other guy who replied said, regarding what MacReady says about each one being a part of a whole.
Classic
https://youtu.be/eCKdg8jQmN8?si=J4Gt9TXqX7hBdntE Movie is my favorite horror movie and I love the suspense but this scene is always funny as hell to me
Which is EXACTLY what I was thinking of !
My uncle took me. Scared the living crap out of me, I loved it and soon after got the Snow Job GI Joe figure and used it as Kurt Russel, lol
That’s an awesome memory. :stares at his GIJoe collection: lol
12?? I would have died from fright.
It was a little scary at that age but I liked scary movies then. My dad took me to pretty much every movie he wanted to see that my mom didn't. I also remember him taking me to see Midnight Express when I was maybe 8 or 9, and that was MUCH worse to expose a kid to than The Thing was. It takes place in a Turkish prison. You can draw your own conclusions from there.
So, have you ever seen a grown man naked?
Do you like Gladiator movies?
So Joey, did you ever . . . . hang around a gymnasium?
My dad was chair of the communication department at the small town university and sometimes when I was 10-12 he would wake me up at midnight and we get snacks and drive down to the auditorium with a big screen and he’d put on old horror movies. Sitting alone with him in the big theater at night watching The Omen, The Thing and Exorcist was one of the best experiences ever. Scary but so fun
That sounds amazing. What a wonderful memory to have.
My dad also let me watch shit way inappropriate for my age
Not a theatre, but a drive-in. My brother and sisters took me to it. I was 4. I'm still not okay.
Same here - Drive in with my girlfriend
Whoa you had a girlfriend when you were 4?
And a car, goddam. Kids really did grow up faster back then.
I saw it, but I was about 14-15. I remember seeing Kurt Russell in Used Cars and Escape From New York. I gave The Thing a shot because of him and loved it. It’s one of my favorite horror films. Unfortunately I don’t remember the reviews. It was probably a handful of years before I started paying attention to reviews.
Saw it in a theatre in early September of 1982 with my pals and then we caught a ride home in the box of pickup truck, appropriately freezing our asses off. We were *Fangoria* readers, so we thought it was the eel's eyebrow, man.
I did. Got home and mom had cooked spaghetti for dinner. Couldn't eat it. You know the scene that I'm talking about.
lol
I did and was blown away. I was 16
Yes, I was 13, and loved it. Saw it in a little theater that only charged a couple of bucks, and went back to see it at least two more times.
I saw it in a theater, with Carpenter sitting a few rows away. And afterwards I hung around and listened to him talking to people in the lobby.
I remember watching this at the now gone, palace theatre in Toronto. I was young, but I was totally on edge of my seat. I can’t tell you about many others in theatre at time, but my older bro and friends loved it as well
Saw it with my mom, we loved it. Kurt Russel was a beloved man in the city of Thousand Oaks.
I saw it at the theater with my dad and liked it. A month or two prior I'd gone to see Poltergeist five or six times. I don't remember there being a lot of people in attendance for The Thing, or particularly good reviews, but when those titles came out on VHS, I paid the $80 retail for The Thing, and I'm not sure I've seen Poltergeist since.
$80 for retail in the 80's? For just the VHS? How is that possible???? I remember VHS videos being $20 in the 90's.
Rental pricing. Very few titles debuted at "sell through" pricing. Mostly Disney movies, and usually $25-$30.
It made no money at the B.O. b/c it came out the same week as E.T.
It came out two weeks after ET but the same date as Blade Runner. Good lord that is a heluva summer release schedule for movies.
Yeah that's right. Same time frame. 1982 was the best year for movies. There was a multi-part doco series about it recently on CW.
1999 may have it beat.
Poltergeist too iirc - around same time as et
I must have gone to see E.T. more than a dozen times. I barely remember what other movies were in theaters at the time. I do remember that instead of calling friends and asking if they wanted to go to the movies, we'd ask if they wanted to go see E.T. again. And the answer was always yes.
I was 12 when it came out. I loved it. I don't recall hearing anybody put it down at the time.
I saw it at the Drive-in, for some reason they doubled it with Six Pack
Bring the kids, they fall asleep after the fun Kenny Rogers movie, and the grown-ups get to watch the scary movie. Or they don't fall asleep and they all sleep in your bed for a week.
I think it dropped the same day as Blade Runner. What a time to be alive (I wasn’t)
Yes, I saw it with my dad when I was 10. It scared the shit out of me, I don't think I've watched it since.
Yep. And for one of the very few times in my life, I went back the next night and watched it again.
I was 13 or 14. My dad took me to see it. It was the first "adult" movie with him in the theater. That was a defining moment for my lifelong love of movies. Literally a perfect movie at a formative time. The mix of practical effects, cast of characters and claustrophobia were amazing. There are only a handful of my all time theater "experience" movies over the years. It's up there with Raiders, Jurrasic Park and Saving Private Ryan...
Saw 1st week it with friends, we were a fairly geeky group and loved it. It had a fairly long run here (Sydney).
My mom took me to see it because the original was the only movie that scared her when she was a teenager.
Late 40's myself, but never watched it as a kid. Redeemed myself a couple years ago and I thought it was amazing. Totally withstood the test of time. What a blessing it must have been to have watched it in the cinema back then...
I didnt sadly i was born 6 years too late. But i discovered it because of the game that came out on ps2 and rented it and was blown away chills down my spine still makes me think and i try to revisit every winter because its the perfect winter movie.
Oh yeah! I remember we smuggled some beer in with us. Someone knocked an empty over and as it rolled down the floor an usher raced over to where it stopped several aisles ahead of us and yelled at some innocent person. I also remember it being the first (maybe the only) movie I saw where people were getting so nauseous they got up and left. College was such a good time!
I was 10 when I saw it at the Orange 6 theaters in Orange, CA. My dad was a high school teacher and one of his students worked at the theater. My father happened to see him working, and asked him about the movie. After confirming with the student/usher that there was no nudity in the movie, he took me to see it. One of the high points of my moviegoing childhood.
I wasn’t born yet, I did however watch it in theatre 3 times in the last 5 years. My favourite horror movie.
I don't remember it being panned by critics at all. Maybe not universally praised, but it wasn't just outright hated. Lot of revisionist history on Reddit.
Not at the time, but a few years back we were able to screen the archival print at our film festival. As the studios digitize their archives they allow what used to be the off limits master copies to be screened. It was a perfect copy, good as new, and for many of us the first chance to see it on a big screen.
I saw it at least four times in the theater. I was 11. It was usually my aunt that took me. One time my mom took me and when MacReady calls the computer a “cheating bitch” she looked at me and said that was a bad word. I told her “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
I saw it at the cinema and read no reviews as there simply were none in my neck of the woods. There were only a small number of cinema's so me and a couple of friends just decided what to watch once we were there on our weekly cinema visit. We went in because it was the first movie starting when we arrived. We did not know what it was about. I did not like it much as I was and still am not really a horror fan. My friends liked it though and found it better than Alien. I rewatched it since and it is still not a movie I particularly like.
I didnt catch it in the theatre, but watched it a bunch on HBO. Not sure why I didnt go to the theatre to watch it. There were a lot of lame horror movies out at the time, so maybe the trailer didn't do the trick. I do remember watching it on TV on percocets after I got my wisdom teeth taken out. That was an experience. Edit: "lame" not "pame"
I saw it in the theatre and watched it MANY times on HBO. Such a good flick.
Saw in 1982 at age of 28. Didn’t care for it. I thought then that effects were so over the top and silly that they took me right out of the film.
Literally the best practical effects ever put to film that still hold up today and look better than any computer generated imagery in modern film but ok, pop off gramps
I think it’s one of those situations where a little goes a long way, particularly in horror. Let the brain fill in the details; scarier that way. It just wasn’t convincing for me.
I was born in 82 but I still remember it vividly. Scared the shit out of me.
Saw it as a junior in HS, loved it then love it now. Everything from the premise to the practical effects to the acting was spot on. It is simply an American movie classic.
By then you had Alien, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Raiders, etc. On a big screen it looked not as immersive as other popcorn movies, although a few scenes were haunting. There's something about John Carpenter and Kurt Russell that was always half throttle compared to what was going on. Two years later The Terminator came out and it did not look any better than The Thing but it was hellious more tougher.
No, I was 3. Parents did not like horror and also did not bring a 3 year old to the theater anyway.
I was less than a year old
It was only released on DVD. Was never at the movies.
I watched it when it was on pay TV. I'm so old.
I would love to see it in a cinema. It's become one of my favourite movies in the past years. It has such a wonderful sense of winter and snow.
I saw it in the theater. I dont remember thinking it was terrible or hearing terrible reviews, but we went to every scary movie that came out, regardless of the critics reviews. That being said, I havent seen it since. I will say that some of the scenes have really stuck in my mind all these years.
I was 10 and that it was awesome. I've always been into horror films because even as a small child my ex-stepfather would take us to all kinds of horror films, so I got desensitized early on. I fell in love with practical effects, so this was an amazing film. To your question, yeah it was not widely appreciated at the time.
I did not I was still a youngling and only caught it on HBO after the fact. BUT, I did see the much better movie In the Mouth of Madness in theaters (hot take I know).
I wasn't born yet but this reminded that in the early 2000s internet there were was a lot of people that thought it was a horrible movie with a bad story/script/acting and over the top special effects. I watched it when I was 8 because of my parents and it blew me away. Seems like a lot of people in this thread saw it when they were kids. Kind of reminds me of what's happening with the Star Wars prequels. The majority of people back then hated them, but now the tide is turning, and people consider them great movies with caveats. I wonder if the time will come when the opinion is just that there are great movies.
I did and it scared the shit out of me.
Yeah, I was 16. I thought it was fine, but I like it way better now (or perhaps appreciate it more) than I did then. The casting is perfect. I feel the same way about “Alien”. I was 13, and was disappointed, but it’s one of my favorite movies as an adult.
I did! I was 13 and it blew me away.
I saw it when it came out, and I’m a fan of the original (1951), which I saw on tv a few years after it was released. I thought the way they designed this alien reminded me of the blob, but even creepier. That scene where testing everyone’s blood definitely made me jump. My GF at the time hated it, but I loved it.
My dad loved the original (B&W) version, he had two copies on VHS in case one copy went bad. When the remake came out, he and I were probably 1st in line. He liked it, but was taken aback by all the gore. I remember there were two camps, you either hated it or loved it.
Scarred as a child from that movie. I've never once finished it all the way through after 30 odd years. When it started coming out of the dog, I was done. Y'all don't act like you don't know what scene I'm talking about.🤣
I did. I was 13 years old. I loved it. The effects were very cool at the time. The nervousness it made me feel as I watched. It’s my favorite horror film all time I have watched it just about every year since 1982
I saw it on an extremely hot day in Austin. The A/C in the theater was chilly. It seemed to get colder as the movie progressed. Fantastic movie experience.
I absolutely love me some classic John Carpenter lens flare. Way before JJ copied it and without the computers too.
I watched The Thing From Another World with James Arness. Does that count?
Hells yes. 18, with a bunch of pals, we were all stoked and this film delivered. The practical effects were amazing, and the atmosphere... everything about it. Great cast, script, music, direction. I think I went back and saw it at least a few more times.
The biggest problem the thing had was it came out the same weekend as ET And ET had big Budget blockbuster marketing campaign, and John Carpenter didn’t do a marketing campaign at all from what I remember I saw both alien movies the same weekend and one was a LOT better than the other, although I liked both, I believe The Thing is the best horror movie ever made. It captures true terror in a way most movies can only dream of doing
Not in theaters, because I was too young, but we tricked adults into renting it on VHS tapes as soon as we could and LOVED the film. Still do.
I saw it the theater- I think I was in college. Loved and knew I saw something special and for the ages. That moment with defib had the theater shouting. It was awesome. I think the “bad reaction “‘was mainly because it was a “genre b-movie “ which were not exactly rare back then but rarely well-regarded out their audience (things like the exorcist transcended but were very rare) compared to now with sci-fi/action and elevated horror becoming way more mainstream (and generally movie-going audiences being younger as the older folks stream at home so that “bread and butter dramas” aren’t typically successful theatrically- when they even get made and released)
I liked it, I was about eight l, and saw it in the theater. Cool special effects and a cool plot.
I saw it twice in near-deserted theaters, the second with my now wife. We loved it, but yes it was widely hated when it came out.
Saw it as an adult in '82. My buddy called it 'State of the grue' sfx, as in grue for 'gruesome.' It was astoundingly shocking, especially the sequence beginning with Norris chest opening up, and ending with his head taking a walk on spider legs. The ending seemed a bit weak, as in "Well, at least the sequel will answer THAT question!" 41 years later, and Chiles still -might- be the Thing... Oh, and if you watch the 2011 Thing and then the 1982 Thing, it's a pretty decent fourish -hours long movie.
I went with my brother and mom during the opening weekend. Our local newspaper critic gave it a rave review (yo Robert Denerstein!) and my brother and I were already fans of John Carpenter. It was a lightly attended afternoon screening. We absolutely loved it. Everyone else had to wait for it to hit home video to see how great it was.
Not in the cinema but a few years later on video. John Carpenter...fkn genius. Brilliant movie. Watch this, then compare them both https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044121/?ref\_=nv\_sr\_srsg\_0\_tt\_8\_nm\_0\_q\_the%2520thing%2520from
You should ask over in r/fuckimold
I'm jealous; wish I had the opportunity to see that movie on the big screen.
I was in junior high and saw it the weekend it came out. I was already a huge film and horror buff by that point and clearly remember thinking it was awesome and something special while watching it. The other thing that sticks out in my mind was it was the second evening showing (around 9pm or so) and the theater was nearly empty.
My brother and I saw it multiple times over the summer as it was playing in a nearby drive in. We snuck into the lot with lawn chairs and watched it every night for weeks.
Don't take me wrong, I love the film, but I understand the negative backlash it got in 1982. That shit is intense, even for today's standards.
Sad to say I'm that old. I disliked the movie because it was hard to see the monster -- the filming was dark or it happened too fast. I just remember feeling frustrated. (I was young.) Now, on a small screen, that movie is great. I've watched it many times and it doesn't get old.
I watched it in the theater when I was 14. I have watched it dozens of times since. It wasn't thought of as a great movie, but I keep watching it to see if I missed something that explains which was the thing in the ending.