History YMMV / TheThingFromAnotherWorld

* NightmareRetardant: The buildup for the Thing is incredibly skillful - the scene where they find the flying saucer, for example, is still one of the more chilling images in any movie. That said, the Thing itself is basically a clumsy albeit strong dude made of plants who slowly stumbles in the heroes' direction. [[FairForItsDay At the time, Lumbering monsters were the thing as opposed to today's speed demons.]]

* NightmareRetardant: The buildup for the Thing is incredibly skillful - the scene where they find the flying saucer, for example, is still one of the more chilling images in any movie. That said, the Thing itself is [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny basically]] a clumsy albeit strong dude made of plants who slowly stumbles in the heroes' direction. [[FairForItsDay At the time, Lumbering monsters were the thing as opposed to today's speed demons.]]

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: General consensus is that the movie does not work that well as a thriller in modern times, [[EvenBetterSequel particularly compared to its]] [[Film/TheThing1982 remake]].

** Agapito from ''Climate of Fear'', due to his badassery (including ''slicing off his own arm'' and being hardly slowed down) and being by far the most intelligent original character from any of the four comics.

** Erskine from the first series, who is pretty much every negative military right-winger nutjob condensed together. He acts irrationally from the get-go, being hostile and even making death threats to [=MacReady=] practically unprovoked, ''remaining'' hostile even after he learns about the Thing and what it can do, and generally inducing an IdiotBall that keeps the plot going. Even when [[spoiler:its revealed he's infected [[StupidEvil he goes on a rampage and sabotages his own means of escape]], reducing The Thing to yet another rampaging monster with none of its cleverness in the movies]]. Even as a HateSink he doesn't particularly work because its implied that his actions are justified from a narrative stand-point, complete with a brief AFatherToHisMen attitude that doesn't go anywhere.

** To a lesser extent, Detective-Sergeant Rowan from ''Eternal Vows'', for being a rare instance of a helpful and comparatively intelligent authority figure.

** Erskine from the first series, who is pretty much every negative military right-winger nutjob condensed together. He acts irrationally from the get-go, being hostile and even making death threats to [=MacReady=] practically unprovoked, ''remaining'' hostile even after he learns about the Thing and what it can do, and generally inducing an IdiotBall that keeps the plot going. Even when [[spoiler:its revealed he's infected he goes on a rampage and sabotages his own means of escape, reducing The Thing to yet another rampaging monster with none of its cleverness in the movies]]. Even as a HateSink he doesn't particularly work because its implied that his actions are justified from a narrative stand-point.
** Dr. Viale from ''Climate of Fear'' due to being a token female character, constantly displaying extreme stupidity, and an attraction to [=MacReady=] which comes out of nowhere in the third issue, and then is never followed up on in the fourth.

* FairForItsDay: The female lead really only exists as an added love interest (though to be fair [[Literature/WhoGoesThere the movie didn't have a whole lot in common with its source material, so this is one of the more minor changes]]). However, she is probably one of the most memorable characters in the movie. Much like Hildy Johnson, she is sharp-witted, intelligent, and far from submissive. Even while most of the choices are put in the hands of the men, she gets a few moments (a memorable case being when the fact that she wasn't involved with an argument among the men allowed her to be the first to notice [[spoiler:that the Thing was cutting off the heat]]). Also despite being in a horror movie from the 1950's, she manages to avoid any kind of DistressedDamsel situation and never once screams in the movie (the only time she actually raised her voice was near the very end, and that was because she was trying to alert the protagonist to a very legitimate problem).

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is the Thing the vanguard of an AlienInvasion, as the soldiers speculate? Or is it a frightened being stranded alone on an alien world. Viciously attacked immediately upon regaining consciousness, and justifiably working to defend itself like Carrington believes?

* IdiotPlot: In sharp contrast to the 1982 film, often praised for having one of the most intelligent and logical casts in horror cinema, this is the one thing that even the better ones suffer from. The stupidity of the characters is the driving force of the stories.

** It gets worse in ''Eternal Vows'', where The Thing has reached the populated island of Stewart Island / Rakiura in New Zealand. The only thing preventing the end of humanity is the IdiotPlot. To quote Linkara, "Well, I can stop now, story's over! The Thing is in a modern city! ''End of the world, ma!''"