The Thing (2011)

Ever wonder what happened before MacReady and the boys went toe-to-toe with alien terror in John Carpenter's 1982 classic The Thing? Well, we didn't really, either, but leave it to Hollywood to show us the mysterious backstory that Carpenter's film left tantalizingly out of reach. 2011's The Thing, a sort of grotesque, body-horror hybrid of prequel and remake, takes place a few days before the original and tells the tale of the Norwegian research base that made the colossal mistake of not letting sleeping extraterrestrials lie. Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr. and starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton, the film is similar to its predecessor not only in its story and visuals, but also in the critical and box-office disappointments it suffered on its release. But, hey, it turned out that Carpenter's film was actually pretty incredible -- can the same be said about this long-in-development return to Antarctica? Chris and Nick break it down in the last of our reviews of Carpenter-adjacent projects, taking a look at the film's controversial CGI visual FX, van Heijningen's direction, the little details that make this a very faithful prequel to the '82 version, and lots more! Plus, Nick checks out a trippy slice of forgotten 70s horror, Chris recommends another stellar film from South Korea, and the guys preview the grand finale (for now) of this very podcast!