Mutants this week we are celebrating a very important birthday. It is the 40th anniversary of John Carpenter's "The Thing" released on June 25th in 1982. We will be pairing this classic with another John Carpenter favorite 1988's "They Live!" Let's get started.
"The Thing" tells the story of a group of scientists stationed in Antarctica who encounter an alien entity that's been frozen in the ice for 100,000 years after a spaceship crash landed in the frozen tundra. This entity has the power to copy other living organisms perfectly in every way, even so far as to be able to talk and think like them, of course this is after it absorbs the organism first. So this soon becomes a mistrustful game of cat and mouse as the entity tries to survive and absorb everything in it's path as it infiltrates the science team. You can trust no one. Everyone is a possible monster. Oh and did I mention that the entity has a hive mind that can divide itself so that it can be several people at once?
I have come to realize that "The Thing" is John Carpenter's greatest movie and it hits my number 3 in the top horror films ever made, just under "The Exorcist" and "Messiah of Evil." This is a masterpiece of suspense and terror that gets under your skin by sewing distrust in an environment that is both claustrophobic and inescapable. It's Carpenter at the top of his game collaborating with some of the best talent in the business. This is Carpenter's best film and a rediscovered masterpiece for the modern age. And yet when it came out it was not a financial success. It's taken years to develop a cult following and a re-evaluation by critics for people to finally realize this movie for what it really is, a masterpiece.
Universal gave Carpenter a 10 million dollar budget which was astronomical for a monster film up to that point in time. Production was given a very generous filming schedule that would last an astounding 98 days. To put that in perspective "Halloween" was filmed in 20 days. With marketing and having to pay off those who had made an investment the movie needed to make 17 million dollars, which Universal thought would be a synch with Carpenter's success from his last three films: Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York. However to reach his vision Carpenter threw his usual thriftiness into the gutter and the movie's budget would balloon to $15 million, The film would make 19.5 million and the studio was able to pay all of it's marketing and bills to investors, but this was not a money maker. The film barely broke even. Let's explore why this happened.
First the backstory.
"The Thing" is based on the novella "Who Goes There?" written in 1938 by John W, Campbell. It was made into a movie in 1951 and titled "The Thing from Another World," however this was not a very faithful adaptation as the Thing was a hulking plant like monster resembling The Swamp Thing, rather than a parasitic organism that assimilates and absorbs that which it touches so that it can mimic its victims.
The idea for the film started in the mid 1970s when producers David Foster and Lawrence Turman got the idea to remake "The Thing from Another World" only to make it more accurate to the book. At this point in their career they were both well-known producers having produced such hits as: The Graduate, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Great White Hope and The Getaway. They pitched the idea to Universal Pictures and they were interested. Universal purchased the rights from Wilbur Stark another successful producer though he mainly worked in television and radio. Wilbur had purchased the rights to 23 RKO Pictures films from some Wall Street suits who didn't know what the hell to do with them, with the promise of a return in investment with interest if the films were ever produced. Wilbur was then given an executive producer credit, and it was all complicated, bureaucratic, time consuming, business as usual in Hollywood Land.
Several attempts were made to adapt the film in the 70s. In fact John Carpenter was even approached in 1976, but Universal wanted someone more established even though Carpenter's low budget films "Dark Star" and "Assault on Precinct 13" had been moderate money makers in their own right, They eventually went with Tobe Hooper who was still reveling in his uncanny success from the mob funded "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Other directors and writers were brought in such as John Landis who had just made the wildly successful comedy "National Lampoon's Animal House" as well as Ridley Scott who had just released the chilling sci-fi horror flick "Alien," but nothing seemed quite right.
Then after the crazy success from "Halloween" Carpenter was approached again. Carpenter was very reluctant to be involved in the film because though he found the characters and setting interesting and respected the original film immensely, even paying homage to it in "Halloween" (it's the scary movie the kids are watching while being babysat by Lorie Strode) the monster from the 1951 film was just a hulking beast, not so different from his Michael Myers creation and though Carpenter definitely has his own style (synthetic intense music, elements of the western, sci-fi, and horror genres all mingling together, lone characters who bathe in stoicism, carefully created very mainstream Hollywoodized action sequences that are done creatively under budget, lots of preplanning, economical straight forward filmmaking, minimal lighting, use of the Steadicam) he is not one to repeat himself. He didn't even want to do a sequel to his original "Halloween" film. He later said taking that franchise in a different direction and then leaving it altogether was one of the biggest financial mistakes of his career. Finally he was urged by his friend Stuart Cohen to read the original novella. After that Carpenter was hooked.
John Carpenter up to this point was a low budget director, but if you watch his movies you know that though he is very economical and pre-plans extensively in order to save money, his mind is full of big budget ideas. Carpenter never wanted to remain a low budget independent film maker. He wanted to play with the big boys. He brought his usual Cinematographer Dean Cundey on board with him. This would be the first time either of them was involved with a big budget major studio film. And thus the incredible spending for this beloved film like a small flame began to grow.
First of all I love the bleak whiteness of the film. The cinematography by Dean Cundey, an oft-time collaborator of Carpenter is fantastic. This was achieved not in a studio lot however, where money could have been saved, but was shot on location in Alaska as well as British Columbia. What was shot on the studio lot required a ridiculous amount of air conditioners to bring the 100 degree L.A. summer weather down to a frigid 28 degrees. The set in Alaska was built in the summer so that it would be in snow in the winter. Upon filming it got so cold that the lens's on the cameras would crack. The snow would be so bad that sometimes they couldn't drive up the 27 mile trek to the set from the nearest small mining town where they were housed. This was cost item number 1.
The ensemble nature of the film whittled down from 37 characters in the novella to 12 by the meticulous Bill Lancaster, screenwriter of the "Bad News Bears.". Lancaster was a perfectionist plagued by depression that was the result of his crippled legs from childhood polio and the fact that he looked identical to his father Burt Lancaster and thus was compared to him, his entire life. "So you're like your dad, except crippled and broken?" It would take him a full year to finish the script with four full re-writes as he used a typewriter, not an expensive word-processer of the day. It would put the production 3 and a half months behind shooting schedule. This was cost item number 2.
The character development that Lancaster weaves and Carpenter encourages shows the audience the people on this science station are already starting to lose it and the beginning of cabin fever is starting to set in. Garry the station commander played by Donald Moffat (known mainly as a dramatic and Shakespearean stage actor on and off Broadway as well as in London) is eager to use his all-too-often-un-holstered pistol to get the job done. Nauls the cook, played by T.K. Carter (who had made a few guest appearances on television by this time namely "The Jeffersons" and the "Waltons") is gliding through the base on roller skates like some kind of happy-go-lucky teenager. Blair, played by Wilford Brimley (who had starred in "The China Syndrome" and "Absence of Malice" at this point in his career as a character actor furrows his brow with paranoia. Childs played by Keith David ( a recent Julliard graduate and theatrical actor who had just completed a tour with The Acting Company performing in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Waiting for Godot") is all to eager to solve every problem with a loud voice and a fist. Clark the dog trainer played by Richard Masur (television actor) is way too emotionally attached to the sled dogs. Windows played by Thomas G. Waites (whos recent work included an uncredited role in "The Warriors" as well as "And Justice for All" opposite Al Pacino) whines about the radio and is watching re-runs of past game shows he's recorded on VHS. To top it all off, our stoic hero the helicopter pilot MacReady played by Kurt Russel (just getting off his recent success in Carpenter's "Escape from New York" where he played the one eyed anti-hero the tough as nails Snake Pliskin) is drinking too much cheap Scotch and when a computer beats him at chess he fries the motherboard by pouring his drink onto the circuits. Everyone else is smoking weed profusely or playing poker nervously. These people are not okay. And they are totally alone.
Originally everyone was going to get $50,000 for their ensemble role. Lancaster's script reads like a John Ford western except instead of the suspense waiting for Liberty Valance to show up, it has the terrifying paranoia of being trapped in Antarctica with an evil chameleon like entity that wishes to absorb you. Since no one person is written as the lead $50,000 to everyone involved seemed very reasonable, but because of Kurt Russell's recent success in pulling away from his Disney persona he insisted on a $400,000 dollar paycheck. On top of this Carpenter insisted on two weeks of rehearsal, which would require the actors to be paid extra as well. This is nearly unheard of in movies, especially horror movies, with the exception of Stuart Gordon who was a theatrical director before he went on to direct controversial horror films like "The Re-Animator." This was cost item number 3.
Instead of scoring the music on his own as he usually did Carpenter deemed it necessary to call in the infamous Ennio Morricone from Europe. Morricone was a hero of Carpenter's and Morricone admits that though he did do the work, most of the score that made it into the movie is from Carpenter. Morricone asked Carpenter "Why did you call me, if you want to do it on your own?" Well Carpenter was just a fan and answered "I got married to your music. This is why I've called you." He basically spent studio money to meet his hero who did scores for such classics as "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" and "Once Upon a Time in the West." The music adds so much tension to the film. Two strong notes start during the opening credits (dun dun) and the notes build on each other(dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun) and we know we are in a bleak world of nihilism. Morricone's trip from Europe was cost item number 4.
Finally the last budget issue. You cannot talk about Carpenter's "The Thing" without mentioning the stellar special effects. These are the best special effects, by the best special effects artist at that time who was Robin Bottin. You are looking at tentacles, and muscular shapes without skin trying to form animals it's absorbed, and gooey mucus, dripping blood, and organs on autopsy tables. Bottin's idea was that the entity had been all over the galaxy and thus had collected many different blueprints for many different organisms throughout the cosmos. Bottin worked around the clock with the aid of his crew, and right hand man Stan Winston. As a result he created some of the best practical effects ever, but at 21 years of age during production he was hospitalized by exhaustion, double pneumonia and bleeding ulcer caused by the stress and massive workload the film required. He was a very young man and yet he was in charge of this company and had not learned how to delegate tasks. A fantastic artist, he would also do much of the work himself, while his crew would be aimless. However it may have been worth it. The effects here are worth the 1.5 million dollars spent on them, even if the original budget was a mere $200,000. Cost item number 5.
My favorite bit of practical effects in the movie is when the Thing detaches it's own human imitated head in order to save itself from being blowtorched to death. The maw of this creature gapes open grotesquely as it stretches like taffy to detach from the body. Then legs grow out of the organism that look like the appendages of a giant spider crab as it tries to scuttle away from the flames. One of the men see's it and says "You've got to be kidding me!" Kurt Russell makes short work of it with the flamethrower. Meanwhile the monster still exists as not every drop of blood was taken care of in the flames. This is one hell of a movie!
So even with these budget problems, why didn't this film make 50 million dollars?
It had the unfortunate same opening date as "E.T. the Extraterrestrial," the largest grossing movie up to that time. Also this is a very dark movie where the message is, nothing can be done, why do anything, if we can't beat this thing, let's just sit here and freeze to death in the snow. It's very nihilistic, which was great in the 1970s when we were concerned with Watergate, and the Vietnam War, but not so good when we were in the decade of excess, where the public wanted a more positive message, like an alien that gets to go home to be with his family and manages to avoid the evil government shadow organization in the process. In fact when it came out though some critics praised the special effects, and the performances, most said that this was a dark film and what was the point of it all? Roger Ebert gave the film 2 1/2 stars stating that the special effects were impressive, but felt like he didn't really need to look into the deep maw of this creature to be scared, which he did admit he was and thus the movie did it's job...barely. He found the acting decent but the characters lacked anything beyond a basic stereotype. They exist to be killed. It's a depressing story with characters who are suicidal. MacReady says we have to burn this place to the ground to protect the world even if we freeze to death afterwards. Blair while confined to a toolshed for his paranoia that caused the destruction of all the equipment that could lead to their escape as well as the slaughter of the rest of the sled dogs, spends his time making a noose and hanging it up, saying "I'm alright now. I want to come inside," in such a matter-of-fact manner that it's chilling. One of the characters takes a torch and burns himself up so as not to be absorbed by the entity. This is dark, hopeless, cosmic horror at it's most unforgiving and it was not tapping into anything that was happening in the year 1982. However right now in the cynical post-covid-19 world it fits in pretty comfortably indeed. In fact the movie would gain a cult following in 1998 with the release of "The Thing" on DVD. It is now widely considered one of the best sci-fi horror films of all time.
Horror films by 1982 had also seen a bit of a decline as everyone was trying to emulate the success of Carpenter's "Halloween" and Sean S. Cunningham's "Friday the 13th." The horror genre was absolutely saturated. In fact Tobe Hooper's "Poltergeist" made more money in it's fourth week, than "The Thing" did in it's first week, and they were showing at the same theaters at that time. Horror movies were getting cheaper and cheaper and audiences less and less. There would be a two year stagnation here until 1984 where "Nightmare on Elm Street" would invigorate the genre.
The star of this movie is the special effects. Yet in marketing the special effects were meant to be a surprise and the trailers tried to push the suspense instead. The ground breaking effects here were ignored until opening night. And yet beyond all this most of the actors and artists involved with this movie went on to successful careers after film's release.
Kurt Russel would end up being one of Hollywood's most humble movie stars in films like "Tombstone." "Escape from L.A." where he would revise his role as Snake Pliskin, "Big Trouble in Little China," "Overboard", "Backdraft", "Vanilla Sky," "The Hateful Eight," Once upon a Time in Hollywood," "Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2" and "Executive Decision." He is still going strong today at the age of 71.
Keith David would collaborate with Carpenter again in the film "They Live" (the second film we will be watching tonight) and star in such films as "Armageddon," and the "Chronicles of Riddick." A prolific voice actor as well he has lent his voice to Todd McFarlane's "Spawn," "The Princess and the Frog," "Adventure Time," "The Flash" "Rick and Morty" and "Coraline."
Wilford Brimley would go on to star in such movies as "Tender Mercies," "The Natural," and "Cocoon." He would also do commercials and be the face of Quaker Oats, Liberty Medical and diabetes education. A local here in St. George and knowing him personally he was an avid storyteller with a great sense of humor and a good poker player, especially Omaha Hi-Lo. He passed away in St. George in August 1, 2020 suffering from a kidney condition in complication with his type 2 diabetes. He was 85.
Richard Masur would go on to play Stanley in the T.V. Miniseries of Stephen King's "It" and would end up as a union president for the Screen Actors Guild from 1995-1999. Today he is working in soaps on "All My Children" and has made many T.V. guest spots over the years.
Donald Moffat would go on to play numerous other roles onstage and film. In film he is best known for his roles as Lyndon B. Johnson in "The Right Stuff" and the President in "Clear and Present Danger." His Broadway credits include: The Cherry Orchard, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet. He retired from acting in 2005 to spend his later years with his family. He died in 2018 of a stroke at the age of 88.
T.K Carter is still a working actor. He would land the part of Mike Fulton an elementary teacher on the show "Punky Brewster." as well as Mylo Williams on "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" otherwise known as the first season of "Saved by the Bell" He was last seen in the sports drama "The Way Back" opposite Ben Affleck.
Thomas G. Waites would go on to guest star in television and do the occasional film, usually low-budget. He would later settle into playwriting, and start the theater company TomCats in L.A., where he would start directing. Eventually he would move back to New York where he was always more comfortable. Though he still takes roles in movies and television to pay the bills, doing the New York working actor thing which means being in several episodes of the different variations of "Law and Order", his true love has ended up being in education. By the year 2000 he would open up the TGW Acting Studio. As of 2015 it is considered the top school to study acting in New York City by Backstage.com. Some of his students have been Alfred Molina, who played Dr. Octopus in "Spiderman 2" and Vinnie Pastore of "The Sopranos."
John Carpenter would continue to direct great movies, but none of them would bring the financial success of his early career, with the exception being Vampires in 1998. He hasn't directed a movie since 2010 but he does still focus on his music which has been used in several movies as of late, the most recent being the remake of "Firestarter" as well as producing the recent "Halloween" Requeals.
Bill Lancaster would work on "Firestarter" and then drop into obscurity due to his health issues and mental illness. Sadly he would die of a heart at attack in 1997 at the age of 49 years old.
David Forster would go on to produce other great films such as "The Mask of Zorro" and "The Core." He would die of natural causes in 2019 at the age of 90.
Lawrence Turman would continue to produce for a number of years such films as "Short Circuit" "The River Wild" and "American History X." He has since settled quite nicely into the world of academia at the University of Southern California as the director of their film producing program. He is 96 years old.
Ennio Morricone would continue to be one of films most prolific score composers composing for such films as "The Untouchables" "In the Line of Fire" and "The Hateful Eight." He would die of complications to a fall in 2020 at the age of 91.
Robin Bottin would continue in special effects working on such movies as "Robo Cop," "Total Recall," "Basic Instinct," "Se7en," "Fight Club" "Legend," "Innerspace," and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." He was most recently working on the HBO series "Game of Thrones."
Stan Winston would also have a great career working on such movies as "Terminator,: Jurassic Park," "Aliens." "Predator" "Inspector Gadget," "Iron Man," and "Edward Scissorhands." He would win four Academy Awards for his special effects work and also direct one of my favorite horror movies "Pumpkinhead." He would die in 2008 at the age of 62 of multiple myeloma cancer that he had battled for seven years.
Now onto the next movie.
"They Live" is an action horror film with it's tongue firmly in cheek. It tells the story of Nada played by Roddy Piper who is a down on his luck construction worker who comes across a set of sunglasses that lets him see the world for what it really is. A world that's in a shade of gray where all races and colors are the same and not divided, where aliens who are humanoid enough except they look like the pictures you'd see in an anatomy book if the skin were missing from the face, just bone and muscle tissue, and there are beams and waves all around that keep humans "asleep" by insisting through subliminal messaging that they OBEY, DONT QUESTION AUTHORITY, MARRY AND CREATE OFFSPRING, AND CONSUME. It's a pretty direct comment on consumerism and how it controls our everyday lives, destroying the middle class and making us slaves to a system we are all controlled by. All the while creating greenhouse gasses that make it more comfortable for the aliens. This is not a subtle movie. Dollar bills have "THIS IS YOUR GOD!" written in big bold letters against a white backdrop when the glasses are put on. So the movie ends up being Nada chewing bubblegum and kicking ass "and I'm all out of bubblegum," he informs a bank filled with the alien creatures. He thus goes on a quest to stop the signal from transmitting so that he can wake people up and we can overcome the aliens that have enslaved us. This is damn near close to anti-Regan propaganda, but there's humor throughout so it makes the pill easier to swallow.
He's accompanied by several vividly drawn characters to help in the fight for freedom. The reluctant and brutally strong Frank Armitage played by Carpenter alum Keith David. Holly Thompson the television executive who is more than what she seems played by Meg Foster. The Street Preacher trying to get the message to the people played by Raymond St. Jacques. And Gilbert the man responsible for if not making at least distributing the special glasses.
In his way are aliens who have infiltrated every important part of our society: business, law enforcement, television, and human traitors who sell out their own kind for money in order to keep their mouth shut, such as the drifter played to perfection by the always enjoyable character actor Buck Flower.
Like most of Carpenter's work after "The Thing" it was a moderate success making 13 million on a 3 million dollar budget, but when you calculate marketing cost and paying back investors, it might be a five million or so profit, which was nothing compared to his success on "Halloween" that he tried over and over to relive. Halloween would make 65 million dollars on a 300,000 dollar budget. And as usual the critics were unkind to the movie when it first came out yet also like most of Carpenter's work it would be reevaluated as a masterpiece and become a cult classic.
One unfortunate interpretation by several neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups have insisted the film is "an allegory for Jewish control of the world." Carpenter has been very outspoken about this and said that those comments are slanders and lies. He insisted that the film "is about yuppies and unrestrained capitalism."
So where did this story come from?
It's based on a short story called "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson, which was originally published in "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction" in 1963. It would later become a comic and Carpenter would acquire the rights to both and get to work on the screenplay, accepting a lot of feedback from the cast and crew while filming giving it a very organic quality.
Carpenter was a fan of professional wrestling and had met Roddy Piper at WrestleMania III in 1987. He approached him about the role as he wanted someone who had "....life written all over him." Keith was needed as a man big enough to take on the muscled wrestler.
Actually one of the best parts of the movie is a five minute brawl between Nada (Piper) and Frank (Keith David). It was a brutal but comical fight that took three weeks to rehearse.
And of course there is Carpenter's musical score combining synth with harmonica and guitar to give it a real working man feel to it. Like the best of blues it sounds like a man with sore feet walking toward goal he'll never meet.
Roddy Piper would continue to work in pro wrestling and make the odd appearance in a television show or low budget film. He would battle Hodgkin's Lymphoma from 2006 onward. He would die in 2015 from a heart attack caused by hypertension, which he suffered from all his life at the age of 61.
Meg Foster would go on to star in many low budget films such as "Leviathan" "Blind Fury" "Stepfather II" "Best of the Best 2" "Shrunken Heads" And she is still working at the age of 74 and has starred in such modern horror films as "Hellblazers," "Overlord" and "Jeepers Creepers 3," as well as guest starring in many television shows the most recent being the reboot of "Twin Peaks" and "Baskets." Her most memorable television role might be as the evil goddess Hera in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess"
Raymond St. Jacques was reaching the end of his career and life a this point. His last great performance would be as Frederick Douglass in "Glory." Even after starring in such prestigious live theater plays as Othello at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre (playing the title role) and touring the country starring in such great plays as "Julius Caesar" "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Raisin in the Sun" he was still not above a low budget b movie. His last film role would be in 1991, a low budget sci-fi film called "Timebomb" released after his death. He died in 1990 of lymphoma at the age of 60.
Chuck Flower would work until his death of cancer at the age of 66 in 2004. He was super prolific in movies often playing cameos of drunks or bums, due to his coarse appearance and gruff voice. Anywhere you needed a bum or homeless person you would cast good ol' chuck. Probably his best remembered roles come in 1997's "Wishmaster" and 1985's "Back to the Future" Red the Bum who always gets awakened from his nap when the DeLorean appears from the past and zaps its way into 1985 and mumbles those immortal words "Crazy drunk drivers!" before curling back up on his park bench, wrapping himself up in a newspaper and drifting back off to sleep.
You knew if we were covering Carpenter it'd be a long one. We will be serving Upstate New York Sports Bar Food. Expect Buffalo wings and pie. Hope to see you there!
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