The Thing- Reviewing the expressions, the sounds, and the horror

Carl Jason Tondo

CCS 202


Time of Scene: (1:19:10 - 1:26:40)






In John Carpenter's The Thing, both small details and classic horror elements are used to emphasize the suspense within the scenes of the movie. It includes a monster that's able to mimic other living beings as one of the film's main characters. That being said, the correct categorization of the thing would be the doppelganger, which counts it as a dyadic monster (Schneider 183). The small details that were used to build the suspense within most scenes of the movie include the lack of music, close-ups of the characters' faces, extreme close-ups of key objects, and the aesthetic use of a slow pace stimulating a very creepy feeling. The classic horror elements identified within the film would be the use of a dyadic monster and the high amount of gore and goo that the monster brings in the scenes that show the thing. Combining the details with the those two horror elements, the film is able to produce jump-scare, creepy, and intense suspense scenes.






The particular scene that will be talked about is the blood test scene, which involved MacReady testing the rest of his team in search for the thing within the team. The close-ups of the key objects in the scene are interesting because it feels as if the the objects are alive due to the intensity brought up by the close-ups.




Close-up of the tip of the flamethrower and the copper wire





The extreme close-up shot of the blood sample and the heated copper wire together creates a feeling of suspense, and the scene potentially becomes nerve-breaking because the audiences knows that at least one of the blood cultures has been infected. This is when the aesthetics and mechanics of slow pacing comes in to use due to their strong influence over creating the scene even more suspenseful. MacReady heats up the copper wire slowly with the flamethrower, touches the blood cultures with the heated copper wire slowly, and looks at each characters' faces slowly. Even the metamorphosis of Palmer was acted in a slow pace! Windows also acted a few frames of hesitation when facing the thing-infected Palmer. The slow pace of the horror scene added to the creepiness of it, and the scene became a lot more frightening as the audience have more viewing time of the transformation of Palmer at a slow pace.












Slowly Cutting the Finger and Drawing Blood from Nauls






The close ups of each character adds more to the suspense and definitely creates an environment of anxiety and discomfort. Nauls, to specifically look at a character that experiences anxiety, starts to sweat a lot while waiting for his blood test. He also begins to shake a little bit from his chair in order to act out and give the audience the feel of suspense and discomfort if the audience were to put themselves in Nauls' shoes. Although Childs is seen as the rough and tough character that isn't scared of the unknown, deep down we can tell Childs also fears death or even being infected by the thing because his expressions change when he waits for the blood test conducted by MacReady. A little similar to Nauls expression, Child starts to sweat and shake from his chair, but he's still able to keep a little bit of his composure as he keeps on with his tough guy face.




























The Strong Expressions of Nauls, Childs, and Garry






The lack of music plays an interesting role within the film. This doesn't necessarily mean that the film is void of all sounds, but it's more like the scenes just has the natural wind swooshing sound or the sound of gas running through the flamethrower. Only hearing these sounds, the scene becomes more intense due to the fact that the audience's ears would be more focused towards the voices of the characters. It's quite helpful because the audience will be able to tell whether the character is scared if his voice cracks or trembles. In the chosen scene, most of the team's voices tremble or unable to speak. Only Childs and Garry were the only ones that were able to definitively speak. Just going on one tangent, a bit of comedy is also integrated within the scene because Childs and Garry's actors were able to voice their complaints so well that it gives the audience a bit of breathing room to laugh during a horror movie. In the end, the film should count as a myriad of horror films that includes dyadic monster that bases itself on the use of camouflage.



Works Cited

The Thing (1982). Dir. John Carpenter, Universal Pictures 1982. DVD.

Schneider, S. ‘Monsters as (Uncanny) Metaphors: Freud, Lakoff, and the Representation of Monstrosity in Cinematic Horror.’ Journal of Cultural Criticism 1.3 (1999): 167-191.