Cautious Optimism

Ever wondered what my favourite movie is, you nosy bastard?

Well it’s this:

And a few months ago, I found out somebody was making this:

So I was like this:

It’s difficult to say what exactly there was to expect from a remake—what it was thought to be at the time of the first news breaking out—but to have your favourite movie modernized with contemporary horror tropes that ensure profitable returns (aka. turned into shit), you have to take it with a pinch, or entire bowl, of salt.

But, as it turned out, not a remake, but a prequel. For those of you who haven’t watched the original 1982 The Thing, go do it, and you’ll get what I mean. Seriously. Now. Look, I’m giving you a fucking download link.

Last year in October, the horror movie/games/comics news site Bloody Disgusting had extensive coverage on the developmental process of the prequel so far.  Fun tidbit, the production studio was actually located on the Harbourfront in downtown Toronto, at Pinewood Studios. Passed by it a couple times, big-ass building. Wanted to go inside, but there was a big-ass gate too. Sucks.

I digress. It was a pretty comprehensive article, if you have enough attention span and interest to read the whole thing, be my guest. But here are some excerpts.

"No matter what you do, somebody is going to come after you. You say 'The Thing Begins' and they go, 'John Carpenter's is the beginning, asshole. Yours is like 'The Thing Bullshit'. Why don't you call it that?" – Producer Marc Abraham on possible fanboy reactions to a new title

I like their attitude, and self-awareness. The producers behind the prequel are the guys who remade Dawn of the Dead back in 2004, still one of my favourite zombie flicks—and cited alongside 28 Days Later as reviving the genre and the emergence of ‘fast zombies’.

"Matthijs [the director] has on his laptop…screen captures of that entire movie", he said. "He's so careful about where the axe is in the door or what the ice block looked like, or the spaceship, where they stand when we see the spaceship…when it [comes] to being anything that was referenced in that movie, we have absolutely stayed with it. Thousands of hours he's spent looking at that movie. He knows and is respectful of every aspect."

This is why I’m queasy over it as much as I was when it was announced. If that kind of care is taken into recreating and respecting the original as much as possible, and because it’s not a remake—and thusly, not changes in the original narrative can happen—the risk-reward ratio for a viewer like me is much better. Maybe, like 10/1. Nah, that’s bullshit, it’s just better when I read that.

Now, before you get your panties all up in a bunch about the use of CGI in the film, keep in mind that had Carpenter and his team enjoyed access to the modern computer effects technology that's available today, you can be 99% sure they would've taken advantage of it. It's all a question of whether it's used judiciously - that is, utilizing it in a way that doesn't overwhelm the practicals and take you out of the movie. Luckily, Image Engine – the studio behind the fantastic CG effects in last year's District 9 - is holding the digital reins here, so hopefully they'll be able to adhere closely to the type of work they pulled off so brilliantly in Neil Blomkamp's movie.

This was probably initially my greatest concern after the first announcements. Practical effects are a huge part of the original, and to rely on CGI to recreate those iconic monsters in the original would be doing a great disservice to the astounding effort put into those creature designs and prosthetics—most importantly, it’d be a disservice to Rob Bottin, the lead SFX artist on the original The Thing, who worked overtime seven days a week during production on the various monsters on the set.

Anyways, that’s just some of the tidbits the full interview, in two parts, tells about the production. The point is, it was a good way to quell my concerns at least a little bit, and since that was from a while ago, I was sure that so early into the production they already had that positive mindset in relating it back to the original, that they can’t deviate much from what the original meant to a lot of its fanbase.

And, just recently, the first trailer popped up looking pretty damn good, sporting the soundtrack emulator from the original trailer and movie, and having some awesome Mary Elizabeth Winstead footage—I mean, reason enough to watch it, forget being my favourite movie of all time.

Norwegian actors, detailed recreations of original set pieces, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Splitface, Image Engine, flamethrowers, mass paranoia, connecting the dots—not much to be pessimistic about. I’m downskies.

October 14th, 2011, folks. Two days from the season premiere of The Walking Dead? Gonna be a pretty sick October.