‘The Thing’ Prequel Trailer Unthaws…

The other day the teaser poster for The Thing prequel was released. Hot on the heels of that comes the new trailer. The film itself was originally planned for this past April. Universal chose to push it back to this October due to extra pickup shots.

Overall, I think this trailer – for what it is- is pretty good. I love nod to the original Ennio Morricone score as well. Am I still a skeptic that the film will work? Yes and no. Yes in the fact that the tone and themes are spot on. This is going to be a hardcore sci-fi horror, no question about that. Some of the Thing “creatures” (such as the one above) are nicely done.

Wait. Did I also say “no”? Darn skippy I did. Here’s what’s wrong.

It’s a prequel. I’d be fine to some extent if this becomes a hit and THEN they remake the Carpenter film (which in itself was a remake) because as it stands right now, a few shots seen in the trailer imply that the timeline is bumped up to present day or close enough to it. Also, the Norwegians can speak broken English. But it’s possible that one of them does not and that would be the guy who tries to kill the Thing Dog at the start of the 1982 film. Still, there is little suspense unless they retcon. It’s my understanding that everyone but two people are going to die (the two being seen at the start of Carpenter’s film) and we know that The Thing will survive until that time. That said, there is one moment in this otherwise perfect trailer that bugs the crud out of me.

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

You have GOT to be kidding me. Forget the creepy crawlies; that line will get me puking just as fast. My goodness, people. I’m hoping the Thing shows up before that scene in the film. That’s all we need, someone being AWARE that there’s danger in unthawing the discovery. But that’s the mental state of our Hollywood system, thinking filmgoers are knuckleheads. It also appears Winstead is the lead in this film. Nothing wrong with that, but…why wouldn’t she check in with the US outpost? Maybe that’s a question we’ll find out in October.

If it wasn’t for that dum-dum line I would be very happy. They made up for it with the old Morricone score. I’m interested, but that gave me pause. I hope that’s just a slip, and it won’t be in the final cut. They were on a roll; I don’t want to see them dumb this down.

Thoughts, int’l friends?

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"Revenge is sweet and not fattening." Alfred Hitchcock

13 thoughts on “‘The Thing’ Prequel Trailer Unthaws…

  1. Yes, this movie has some giant shoes to fill, and no doubt it will fail to live up to the fans expectations, but lets give it a fair shot before we trash it based solely upon the trailer. The cast and crew seem to have gone to considerable lengths to be faithful to the timeline, I have read the leaked script and I will say that although there are many parallels to carpenters version this one has potential to really be quite unique.

  2. I will reserve judgement on that line in particular until I hear it in full context of the scene it came from. That being said, this movie doesn’t look terribly good based on the trailer. …but maybe it’ll fill the void for Antarctica based horror involving creepy things since I have less and less confidence that “At The Mountains Of Madness” will ever truly happen.

  3. This looks exactly like I had envisioned a Thing prequel/remake when they announced it years ago. Like crap. Female lead character? Check. Cgi all over the place? Check. An increased quantity of attractive young people? Check. Set in present day? Check. Identical throwbacks to Carpenter’s version? Check. Stupid dialogue? Check.

    Check. Check. Check.

    Check to every single bad thought I’ve had about them doing this film. It’s exactly as I imagined it. I remember saying it would look exactly the way it does. None of those things I mentioned (aside from stupid dialogue and unnecessary throwbacks) do I find inherently terrible, but altogether in combination with The Thing franchise I am presented with huge pile of celluloidal feces, a concoction of indigestible waste, an abyss of disappointment and a big FU to me personally as a fan of John Carpenter’s original.

    Having expressed my disapproval I will now move on and forget about the movie entirely.

  4. I’m glad Im not the only one pointing this out…but yes, it looks like an exact remake to Carpenters, there’s not really anything that makes it seem like a backstory except for a few foreigners in it. Even the formula of scares and build ups look to be the exact same thing that was in Carpenters. I gotta say man….not impressed.

  5. The Base/quarters there in looks like a replica of the original film (well carpenters anyway)

    They have the dog, chewing on chicken wire (almost the same)

    this seems to be a remake not a prequel, even though it WAS the Huskie that infected everyone in Carpenters version….IDK..

    I LOVE Carpenters version…This does seem pretty good though.

    I throw away silly dialouge when it comes to these type of films and focus on the “Blood,Gore, and suspense. which Carpenters had in Spades!

    the Operating table scene is gonna be hard to match

  6. Wow, it actually does look like it might be pretty good. I do agree that that line was awful as well as agree with everything else you said, but love how they’ve so far seemed to be keeping the serious dark tone of the old movie. As well as the great score and most everything else I love about the original.

    They even seemed to of brought back the awesome horrifying scream of the original monster. Thought it was great how they don’t show the monster that much in the trailer too. I’d rather be surprised by how it looks the first time in the theater then in the trailer. Even though it’s going to have many different forms before the end of the film I’m sure. So many trailers for horror/monster movies blatantly shove it in your face these days what the creature is going to look like, again, so glad the chose not to this time.

    I just might have to go see this one. But one last thing, if it is a prequel, then why is it titled “The Thing”? Why didn’t they add on “The Beginning” or “First Encounter”, or some other cheesy extended tag to the title, to signify it is a prequel to an original? Could it be that they decided to just do a remake instead?

  7. You pretty much pointed out all my concerns and hopes for the film. And I do agree with that quoted line. I am hoping that it was an audio edit from another part of the film to make the trailer ‘look’ better.

  8. I agree. That line just felt… stupid. Please tell me that wasn’t the context. Otherwise, I am surprisingly not hating this trailer. And yes, unless this is a reboot prequel, I can’t imagine any suspense in this film. They should have done a sequel.

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