The inherent irony in giving a remake shit for having the gall to redo an incredibly well-liked, undeniably classic remake hasn’t been lost on anyone covering this movie, from what I can tell. So I think the shit given to this 2011 The Thing has been based on reasonable facts and the actual footage we’ve seen… most of which sucks.

It boils down to this:

A) It pretends to be a prequel, but shares a title and clearly replicates many of the beats and the same iconic imagery (the dogs, flamethrower, etc). This is dumb.

B) The cast is generally prettier and seems generally younger than the original cast. This is not dumb, but suggests typical Hollywood tinkering.

C) All the footage looks like and has been cut like extremely cliche, bland modern horror. This is dumb, and suggests typical Hollywood tinkering.

Case in point, the first TV spot for the film (which I caught thanks to LatinoReview):

That’s a mere few seconds to go, but it’s building on an impression started by the first trailer, and the re-shoot-rife production itself. And man that awful explosion of the creature out of the block of ice….

This whole thing piles on even more irony as I really liked the last remake I saw. I can argue all day about how the film was sharply reinterpreted and molded to fit into an interesting filmmaker’s oeuvre, but at the end of the day it’s no less fair to give The Thing its day in court. I’m gonna –I’m sure we’re all gonna– but that doesn’t mean I won’t be a bit grumbly walking in.

Your thoughts on this ad and The Thing footage so far?

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