The Thing (1982)
Not so much a remake of the 1951 monster movie as a return to its inspiration: "Who Goes There," John W. Campbell's short story about a group of scientists in an isolated research station who are being picked off by a shape-shifting creature that can adopt the appearance of anything — and anyone — it devours. Though the spectacularly icky special effects by Rob Bottin are what most people remember, the film is really a model of intelligently crafted suspense, and John Carpenter (directing from a fine script by Bill Lancaster) keeps the paranoia level high. The movie tanked upon release (it was the summer of E.T., and nobody wanted to know about nasty aliens), but the years have proved it to be Carpenter's finest work — every bit as relentless as Halloween, but with brains and flashes of ruthless wit. And the effects, even at their grossest, are wildly imaginative. Carpenter and Bottin take the concept of a creature that can become anything it wants and push it about as far as it can go. When one of the characters, faced with the alien's latest transformation, says, "You gotta be fuckin' kidding," you know exactly how he feels.

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First published in The Opinion Mill.