The Thing

It's not human. Yet.

This week's third 'back to the past' also calls back the early 1980s with a prequel to John Carpenter's identically titled offering. Set in the Antarctic, a group of scientists discover a 100,000 year old spaceship with a sole occupant. Once thawed out, the occupant miraculously returns to life, and soon displays a neat trick: it can assume the shape, voice and memories of any person it touches. As a mysterious illness starts killing off the crew, they need to figure out who is human and who is not, before they all die.

102 minutes.
No persons under 18 (Language, Violence).
Detective/Mystery, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller.

Not currently showing on the local cinema circuit.

I wonder if it is male?...

Credits

Cast	Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Eric Christian Olsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Paul Braunstein
Director	Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
Screenplay	Eric Heisserer, from a story by John W. Campbell Jr
Music	Marco Beltrami
Cinematography	Michel Abramowicz
Editing	Peter Boyle, Julian Clarke, Jono Griffith
Sound formats	Dolby Digital, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, DTS
Soundtrack	Available
Made in	2011
Produced by	Morgan Creek Productions, Strike Entertainment

Official Site | IMDB page | ScreenIt Report
Scroll down for embedded trailer

Film and Publications Board (FPB) Report (SA)

Genre	Horror
Language	Moderate to strong, infrequent
Nudity	None
Sex	None
Violence	Strong to very strong, bloody, nightmarish, lengthy on occasions
Prejudice	None
Blasphemy	None
Drug abuse	None
Comments	None
These details are supplied by the FPB. If you have a problem with any of the above, please take it up directly with the FPB. Read the Classification Guidelines.

ScreenIt Report (USA)

Sex / Nudity	Violence	Blood / Gore / Gross
Guns / Weapons	Profanity	Alcohol / Drugs
Smoking	Disrespectful / Bad Attitude	Imitative Behaviour
Frightening / Tense Scenes	Jump Scenes	Tense Family Scenes
Music (Scary/Tense)	Music (Inappropriate)	Topics to talk about

Ratings

Scale (Max)	20
What the Critics say
Cape Argus / The Star Todd McCarthy More diversity among the cast would have given the film more flavour and linguistic nuance. But it is technically solid with good effects.	10
Die Burger Paul Boekkooi Boeglam skrik hier jou voorland.	10
Box Office James Rocchi This film's just a wet and sickly imitation of a fully-formed and deservedly much-loved classic.	5
ScreenIt C. Fuchs Fans of the original will be relieved that this is a prequel and thus not an actual remake of the '82 film, and they'll certainly enjoy how it ties in to that flick (especially its ending to the earlier film's beginning). For everyone else, however, and once one has gotten over the shock value of the gory visuals, the result is a fairly humdrum and less than engaging experience.	8
Metacritic.com 31 critics	10
Rottentomatoes critics 151 critics	10
Rottentomatoes tomatometer Tomatometer It serves the bare serviceable minimum for a horror flick, but The Thing is all boo-scares and a slave to the far superior John Carpenter version.	7
Movie Review Query Engine MRQE critics	10
Movie Review Intelligence 45 critics	10
What the People say
Internet 21618 Netizens A pale imitation of Carpenter's masterpiece	13
Average .. 47%	9