Line #3 NightmareFuel/TheThing1982


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4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_palmerthing.png]] [[caption-width-right:350:Man is the warmest place to hide.]]
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6	->''"I don't know what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed-off, whatever it is!"''
7	-->-- '''An understandably freaked out Clark'''
8
9	''The Thing'' is often described as one of the most downright ''terrifying'' films of all time, chock full of some of the highest-octane NightmareFuel and {{Gorn}} there is. '''There is a very [[ParanoiaFuel good]] [[BodyHorror reason]] for this.'''
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11	!! As a NightmareFuel page, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned You really do not want this film spoiled to you.]]
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13	* The setting: a remote base in an uninhabited corner of the world. With the winter storm, they can't contact anyone in the outside world. If things go wrong, they can't call for help... because there's ''nobody who will hear the call.'' There's no escape because there's nowhere to go, and nobody is going to even check on them for several months.
14	* Let's start with the Dog-Thing. The moment it is alone with the other dogs, it ''peels the face off the skull'' of the dog it was disguised as, "blossoming" like some kind of macabre flower, then discards the skull, grows a huge batch of CombatTentacles and a bunch of spider legs, and goes right to work on its kennel-mates. The absolutely ''horrifying'' noises that start coming from the kennel attract Clark's attention, and cause [=MacReady=] to hit the fire alarm to bring everyone running. What they find in there is a scene ''straight out of Creator/HPLovecraft'': ''Something'' is busily wrapping the other dogs in tentacles and ''digesting them alive''. The horror momentarily paralyzes the other men until [=MacReady=] takes charge and orders someone to fetch the flamethrower.
15	** And it gets worse: They starts pumping shotgun shells into it, which of course just ''pisses it off''. It grows a pair of very large limbs - that look like ''nothing'' of this Earth -- and skitters itself up to the ceiling, making [[HellIsthatNoise high pitched squeaking noises]]. ''Human eyes'' start appearing in the main mass (the first clue that it isn't just dogs that got assimilated). When Childs finally shows up with the flamethrower, the Dog-Thing grows another tentacle - with a ''mouth made of radially arranged dog tongues'' - and attempts to attack him with it. He snaps out of it just in time and hastily immolates the Dog-Thing, finally putting an end to the dogs' (and the ''audience's'') suffering.
16	*** Every time the camera looked at the mass of flesh that was once the Dog-Thing, it gets '''worse'''. Like it's mutating even further in the span of a few seconds. One moment it's trying to take the shape of a weird bug with tentacles, then it abandons that and sprouts grotesque, reptilian arms and then it starts manifesting eyes and even some kind of weapon (a tentacle-maw made out from dog teeth and tongues) to defend itself with.
17	** What really made the kennel scene stand out was that when the dog started to transform, the dogs in the kennel went from aggressive to ''frantic'' attempts to escape. Seeing one of them desperately trying to claw and bite through at the metal fence to escape the other dogs' fate just added to the horror.
18	** One of the unfortunate dogs was attacked by the thing with a jet of liquid, implied to be digestive acids. The next and last time we see that dog [[Main/AndIMustScream it is hairless, its flesh looks half-melted and warped, and it can only whimper]] as the Thing [[Main/EatenAlive swarms it with fleshy tendrils]].
19	** If the charred remains of the Split-Face Thing didn't clue you in, the Dog-Thing really hammers home just how ''alien'' the Thing is. This is not only due to the appearance of the monster itself, but the sound effects as well (see below). The Norwegians had the right idea, but bad execution: slow it down with bullets and use thermite grenades to finish the job. KillItWithFire is the only way.
20	** The fear that's apparent on the faces of the entire cast when they finally see the monster. No one even seems to understand what they're looking at. Mac, the badass action hero of the group, isn't much better off. First he bursts in with a shotgun ready to defend the dogs, but then he actually stops and listens to the Thing's wailing and realizes that someone very unusual is happening.
21	** Overall, the Kennel Scene was probably coup de grace of the creature's plan. If the Dog-Thing succeeded it would've imitated about 10 dogs, and maybe even spit out a few humans from the Norwegian camp. At that point, it would just outright overwhelm the Outpost. Thank God for Clark coming to check things out.
22	** Hell, even before the Dog-Thing outed itself, the dog it was disguised as was off-the-scale creepy. It's no spoiler to point out that something's ''Just Not Right'' about that dog from the first time you see it. It stands perfectly still, and stares, and never wags its tail. You can see it coolly calculating and planning, waiting for the right moment. And that music...
23	*** According to the commentary track featuring Creator/JohnCarpenter, the animal actor (his name was Creator/{{Jed}}) didn't need special training to perform the creepy deliberateness and intensity because he was half-wolf. Jed was highly trained, but he's still a wolfdog; he doesn't act like other dogs do. The stillness and staring all come from the wolf in him. On set, the actors were genuinely spooked by him, despite his good behavior.
24	** Pointing out how efficient the Dog-Thing's disguise was: in most movies, animals go berserk when they are in the presence of a monster, in this case dogs would've been a barking frenzy trying to warn the humans that something is dangerously wrong. The huskies didn't even seem put off by the Dog-Thing until it started transforming out of its canine body, meaning that the lifeform was even able to perfectly mimic the individual ''scent'' of a real dog, not just its appearance and mannerisms. Makes the whole thing all the more terrifying.
25	* The part where after eating Dr. Copper's arms with a mouth in its chest, the Norris-Thing pulls its own head away from its flaming body, after which it (the head) then sprouts legs and eye-stalks and tries to scuttle out the door. Not to mention how before that its organs jumped from its body, grew a head, neck and legs and clung to a vent to try an escape.
26	** And let's not forget to mention the horrific, inhuman wailing the creature's making the entire time. It's pretty much the icing on the nightmare/nausea cake.
27	* The Bennings scene. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0Z44BIDPPc Absolutely everything about this scene is horrific]]. The first slow pan from a chair, covered in blood, with a shredded uniform in it. Then you - and Windows - [[HellIsThatNoise hear the noise]]. He slowly turns his head to the source of the noise - Bennings being visibly digested by the '''very much alive''' Split-Face-Thing, tentacles pouring out of every orifice. It ends with him just softly whispering [[PrecisionFStrike "holy shit"]], dropping the key - and running for his life.
28	** With the speed at which the men came back, and the fact that discarded clothes were lying on the floor covered in blood when Windows walked in, it's likelier that this isn't Bennings being assimilated, but the Bennings-Thing ''being spat out''. Bennings had already been digested, copied, and slid back into place. [=MacReady=] just came back so fast that the Bennings-Thing hadn't had a chance to fully disguise itself before it was forced to flee.
29	** TheReveal about the Split-Face Thing being alive means that it was happily playing possum during all those scenes we saw where Blair and Fuchs were doing an autopsy.
30	* The way that the Bennings-Thing looks up when they catch up to it. It looks up at them with [[BlackEyesOfEvil jet black irises]], reveals the bloody masses of half-grown tentacles at the ends of the arms, opens its mouth way, ''way'' wider than any human should be capable of, and starts giving off an [[HellIsThatNoise unearthly wailing.]] After they burn it, the momentary relief is followed by the [[ParanoiaFuel realisation by the team:]] ''Blair is not with them and nobody knows where he is.''
31	* The blood test is one of the greatest jump scares of all time. Especially great is how we're made to expect one of two characters is a Thing. [=MacReady=], easily the smartest and most competent of them, is still haranguing them about who ''he'' thinks the Thing is - Garry - and casually puts the hot wire to the blood of someone he expects to be human - Palmer. IT FUCKING EXPLODES. The blood ''screeches'', and it's [[HellIsthatNoise the most hideous sound you'll hear]], then oozes off while its owner begins another horrifying transformation...
32	** The FX men made a little inflatable monster head and neck, which jumps up out of a petri dish held by a false arm the actor wore for that shot. Freeze-frame it. The editing and performance-matching quality here is frankly amazing.
33	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLYDjTJhtHs Here]] is an in-depth analysis of all the ways the scene builds tension before finally scaring the shit out of you. Of special note, as [=MacReady=] performs each test, the blood sample moves closer and closer to him, just sitting on the table for the first few, held in his hand in the same frame as his face for the last two, signifying that with each negative test, the odds of a positive increases. ''The danger keeps getting closer''.
34	* And right after the blood test, Palmer's transformation begins, with the thing masquerading as him [[LastVillainStand not wanting to go down without a fight]], with Childs and Garry flailing and screaming bloody murder ''because they've been tied together with him.''
35	** When his transformation starts, Palmer begins to convulse violently, then starts [[EyeScream bleeding from the eyes]] while the new Palmer-Thing lets out an ungodly scream. His head [[BodyHorror starts to swell in a disgusting manner, bleeding bumps which push the liquefied eyeballs out of the sockets]] (the pic at the top is merely the ''start'' of this), busts out of the rope, then splits down the middle to reveal a [[BodyHorror giant, tooth-filled maw]]. Once transformed, it wraps a long tongue around Windows' neck, pulls his head into the maw, and proceeds to give him an absolutely '''brutal''' mauling while [=MacReady=] is furiously trying to get the flamethrower working...
36	** It gets even ''worse'' when the Palmer-Thing is ''finally'' set on [[KillItWithFire fire]]. Normally fire quickly kills an outed Thing, but the Palmer-Thing is made of stronger stuff. It wails ''angrily'' and attempts to attack [=MacReady=], chomping its mouth at him as if it wasn't even fazed by the flames. That moment alone is one of most frightening images in the entire film; the image of a Thing coming ''right at you'', trying to bite your face off while on FIRE!
37	* Blair's freakout and sudden destruction of the crew's equipment. It gets very intense, and is followed up with two implications that fit under Fridge Horror: 1. Blair realizing that if anything were intact one of the imitations could use the vehicles or radio for outside help to escape and spread. 2. The reveal at some point in the film that Blair was assimilated himself, which would shed a different light on the situation. Perhaps, it wanted to stay and either escape on its replicated spaceship to leave everyone to freeze to death or let everyone die out and be rediscovered by a future search team. Either way, it is a very disturbing scene in hindsight.
38	** Or a third alternative: If it's possible to realize you're being assimilated, Blair is probably one of the few characters who would realize this (since he knows about its biology). And he made that noose in the shack... Did he realize he had been contaminated earlier, and made the noose, but lost control before he could kill himself?
39	* The burned split-faced corpse at the Norwegian camp was NightmareFuel even before it started moving. Two heads, melted together in a frozen rictus of agony... in fair Antarctica, where no-one heard them scream...
40	* The entire scene at the ruins of the Norwegian camp. The whole place is in ruins, most of it has burned to the ground, and aside from one man who evidently committed suicide as well as the Split-Face Thing, there's no sign of anyone or anything else. One would half expect something to burst out and attack Mac and Dr. Copper at any time, but nothing does. There's only hints of the fate of the personnel, such as a bloody fire ax embedded in a door. This is before the Thing has reared its ugly head, so it's not yet quite clear what exactly could have caused this kind of destruction. Dr. Copper's reaction to the whole mess [[AudienceSurrogate probably will echo first time viewers.]]
41	-->'''Copper''': My God. What the hell happened here?
42	** Even before the [[Film/TheThing2011 prequel]] clarified what happened, the only possible interpretation of the Norwegian's fate is that The Thing ''decimated'' them so utterly that whoever was left simply lit the station on fire in a desperate attempt to kill it.
43	* Although the BodyHorror elements are still incredibly creepy, as well as the paranoia, the sound effects are also pretty nightmare-inducing:
44	** Take for example the scene right before the kennel, when [=MacReady=] grabs a beer in the fridge... in the background you hear weird rumbling monster sounds, and then you hear that awful high-pitched dog yelping/barking/squealing. Then the dogs in the background ''start to scream.'' ''That's'' the point that [=MacReady=] slams on the fire alarm (which puts you into panic mode).
45	** THEN the scene switches to Clark waiting nervously in the hall, and you hear one of THE MOST god-awfully nightmarish sounds ever, a strangely distorted male voice screaming in agony... it makes you wonder what the ''hell'' is taking place in the kennel, especially since none of the humans are inside of it.
46	** When the men shine their light on the Dog-Thing, it lets out an unnerving sound that sounds like a big cat's roar run through an electronic filter. And in the wide shot of the creature, it makes a sound like the electronically processed squeals of a pig.
47	** After it [[NoSell No Sells]] their attempt to kill it with shotguns, it skitters up to the ceiling, making rapid, high-pitched, utterly alien squeaking sounds.
48	** During the rest of the scene, you continue hearing these weird hybrid sounds of humans wailing/screaming, dogs barking/yelping, and weird growling and hissing sounds. One could simply LISTEN to this scene and get completely unsettled.
49	** A little detail to think about: perhaps all those sounds the Thing makes are [[AndIMustScream from all its prior victims keening together.]]
50	* After the blood test we notice something that might hit you [[ParanoiaFuel subconsciously]]. The blood that was tested to be from a Thing, after screaming and being dropped to the ground, quickly scurries away. Nobody mentions it again, though it's possible that it became part of the Blair-Thing later.
51	* The jump scare when Fuchs's light goes out. He takes a flare and walks to his door and trips something and all of a sudden we see a shadow shoot by with one of the most horrific sounds ever put on screen. This jump scare mixed psychological horror and paranoia as we don't know who/what it is and the sound that it makes is so alien and inhuman that it will ALWAYS crawl under your skin.
52	* The same sound is heard when the Blair-Thing shows up to kill Garry by first shoving his fingers into his mouth with the implication that he was sending tendrils down Garry's throat to assimilate him.
53	* The frozen Norwegian corpse who slit his wrists ''and'' throat. [[https://youtu.be/Kj_57s-8y9w A deleted scene]] in the 2011 remake shows [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled he did that to himself rather than be taken over.]]
54	* The main theme itself, which is reminiscent of a heartbeat: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsMH-sdznh8 dun dun.... dun dun... dun dun... dun dun...]]
55	* The plans for the never-produced Sci-Fi Channel series: ''The Thing figures out how to get around the blood test.'' Even further, it played with the idea of The Thing and showed just how unstoppable it would be if it ever got to a place that wasn't mostly devoid of life. We really would not stand a chance. Worst of all, the ending would have the Thing finally escaping in the crowded city of New York, rendering the protagonists' struggle pretty much pointless.
56	* The ending. Even if Macready and Childs aren't Things, they're still trapped in the middle of the frozen Antarctic, with little real hope for survival. The ruins of Outpost 31 are burning around them, and they have no food or shelter...and there's that little, teeny, tiny chance that ''[[ParanoiaFuel one of them is infected.]]''
57	** Some TV broadcasts of the film include an unnamed narrator who introduces the setting and the main characters. At the end he returns and speaks over an additional scene of a dog-Thing [[TheBadGuyWins very much alive]] and running away from the wreckage of Outpost 31. The narrator then speaks directly to the viewers telling them to '[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou watch the person next to you]], [[CallBack watch them very closely]].'
58	* Fuchs' death. A combination of BetterToDieThanBeKilled and NothingIsScarier. We don't actually see it happen, but the other group members speculate that he realized he was about to be consumed so instead he burned himself alive ''with a flare''!
59	** What makes Fuch's offscreen fate so terrifying is that there really was no hope for him. He was already alone and somewhat isolated in his lab, and he'd been away from the group long enough for the creature to get to him anyway. Burning himself alive with his flare was quite possibly the only option he had because no one would trust him and he wouldn't trust anybody that he encountered coming back into base.
60	* While it is a distant runner-up to all the {{Gorn}} and terror that the Thing itself brings, there’s the scene in which the men were pretty much about to lynch [=MacReady=] in a paranoid frenzy on some pretty flimsy evidence. The situation certainly called for caution, but seeing how quickly the men turned on each other was pretty damn scary, especially since it is shown the men are so terrified ''they don’t really care all that much if [=MacReady=] is innocent or not.''
61	-->'''Windows''': [[OnlySaneMan Childs, what if we're wrong about him?!]]
62	-->'''Childs''': Well then, we're wrong!
63	** And the realization that if [=MacReady=] hadn't found a (drastic) way to make them back off, he'd likely only have been ''the first one'' to get lynched.
64	** Or that even if '''none of them''' had been Things at that point, it wouldn't have made any difference: paranoia would ''never let them believe it''.
65	* [[WhatCouldHaveBeen The deleted scene]] showing Nauls' death was gruesome even by this movie's standards. The scene is shown in storyboard and takes place in the final act; after the Blair-Thing assimilates Garry, Mac and Nauls split up. Nauls goes down a narrow hallway and eventually stops in front of a large cabinet. He find Garry's body then looks up and is grabbed by Blair, looming above him in a tentacled, blob-like form with a malformed arm. The next scene would've been Nauls' death scene occurring just before the final form of the Blair-Thing appeared in front of Mac. After the floor burst open, Nauls' head emerged from the hole, rolling and crying out "Help me!" Then the rest of Nauls' body would rise out, skin and flesh [[ImMelting melting]] off the bones ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''-style and missing a hand. While Mac stared horrified, '''[[BodyHorror small tentacles would pop out all over Nauls' body while a large one moved up his throat then out his mouth]]''', silencing his cries. Nauls' head rolled around as the large tentacle ballooned before it burst Nauls' jaw and ribcage open, killing him.
66	* Just the tagline: "[[ParanoiaFuel Man is the warmest place to hide]]".
67	* The scene with Blair at the computer before shit well and truly starts hitting the fan is quite chilling in a simple way, calling to mind the "Crew expendable" scene from ''Film/{{Alien}}''. We see a pixelated animation of how the Thing assimilates and copies other living cells, which happens alarmingly quickly. Blair then tries predicting how likely it is that one of the team members has been infected. The answer: ''[[WhamLine 75% probability]]''. And to make it worse, it's then predicted that if the Thing made it into civilized areas, it could potentially take 27,000 hours for the ''entire population'' to be assimilated unless it was stopped (that's 1125 days, or a little over three years). It's at this moment both Blair and the audience realise just how dire the situation is.
68	* The shocking scene where the men find the Thing’s self-made spaceship. It’s quite unnerving to assume that the alien likely realized there were no ways of escaping the desolate base it found itself in with the minuscule technology available and barren geography surrounding it. So, instead of just giving up or simply fighting until its own death, it decides to take matters into its own hands and secretly build its own spaceship with whatever foreign tools it could find… all while distracting the men trying to stop it elsewhere. [[FridgeHorror The probability that the Thing very well nearly succeeded in escaping Antarctica is a horrific one]]. It is, indeed, intelligent and incredibly determined to survive.
69	* Stopping to think about how dangerous the Thing is will keep you up at night on its own. The only reason it's not a movie about an ''apocalypse'' is because Earth was fortunate enough that the Thing landed on Antarctica, the only place on the planet that could be considered unpopulated. The Thing's opening act shows that it can seemingly replicate ''any'' creature, even if it prefers humans. The only reason it hasn't [[ApocalypseHow taken over the world]] is because the place it landed is too far from a coast for it to not freeze on the way. If it ever got close enough to the ocean, or any other creature it could replicate... A spider, a bee, a colony of ants, a ''fish''... ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt No one would ever find it or ever be able to stop it. Humanity would be doomed with no recourse]]''.
70	* Oh, one last thing [[SarcasmMode to calm your nerves]] - official production information explicitly states that ''[[FridgeHorror sentient organisms replaced by the Thing don't always know it.]]''

Context NightmareFuel / TheThing1982