[Nerd’s Pick]

Last night, I watched John Carpenter’s The Thing for the very first time, and I found it to be an interesting experience. Obviously, being my age and an avid horror fan, I’ve seen plenty of references to this film, as it’s an iconic piece of horror film history, but I’d never gotten to watch the actual movie before.

My favorite part of the film was probably the practical effects. It was really fun to watch The Thing squirm around in its own blood and do a bunch of gross stuff. Nerd predicted I would hate it due to my body horror issue and the lack of women. Yes, I found the lack of women to be very boring, but surprisingly, the gore didn’t trigger my revulsion.

I liked the concept quite a bit, and while it can get old and be very stressful, paranoia spreading within a group is always a compelling storyline to explore. I don’t know if it’s the age or, more likely, the lack of mystery around the monster, but I didn’t find this film scary in any way. Some parts of the movie also jumped out at me as far too silly (Dr. Blair’s computer simulation in particular).

All in all, I left the film pretty much unmoved. I feel overall pretty neutral about it, but toward the positive side. (Whereas, I am neutral about Tár, but slightly on the negative side.)

Rating: 💬 I have now seen this movie.

My best friends and I (known affectionately as Goblin House) have a regular movie night where we all sit down together and watch a movie one of us has chosen. Most of these reviews will come from a Goblin Movie Night, so they will be tagged with the nickname of the Goblin who picked the movie.