Quentin Tarantino is a die-hard fan of horror cinema and understands exactly how to craft a proper scare. I only wish he would lean into the genre more often. The director has only made one proper horror movie to date (Death Proof) and he’s been threatening to retire from cinema after his next film. That’s a true shame.
During a conversation between The Late Show host Stephen Colbert and Tarantino, the pair connected over a shared appreciation for the horror novella Who Goes There, the 1951 feature film version, The Thing from Another World, and John Carpenter’s The Thing.
For Tarantino and Colbert, it’s all about practical effects in The Thing
Tarantino and Colbert each gushed over the effects work on display in Carpenter’s remake. “Rob Bottin’s effects in that movie are some of the greatest practical special effects ever put on a movie theater screen,” Tarantino told Colbert. “It’s one of the greatest horror movies ever made, if not one the greatest movies ever made.”
Tarantino went on to say: “One of the reasons that The Thing holds a special place in my heart is that I love horror movies — I’m a big horror movie fan — but I don’t get scared in horror movies. I respond to suspense. I respond to that. ‘Oh, what’s going to happen next?’ I can jump by a boo scare. But that’s not really terror… The Thing I got scared in.”
I have to agree with Tarantino. The Thing is a practical effects powerhouse and one of the greatest horror films ever committed to celluloid. It’s easily among Carpenter’s greatest. And with a filmography as strong as his, that’s really saying something. I also have a certain amount of appreciation for the oft-maligned prequel. But that’s another story for another day.
The setup goes like this:
In remote Antarctica, a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. When they take in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings and canines in the camp and they discover that the beast can assume the shape of its victims. A resourceful helicopter pilot (Kurt Russell) and the camp doctor (Richard Dysart) lead the camp crew in a desperate, gory battle against the vicious creature before it picks them all off, one by one.
If you need a refresher, you can scope the trailer for The Thing in the player below!
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