The Thing (HD DVD)
The running time is 1 hr. 49 mins..
The title, to me, insinuates some silly story about a gross creature that kills people and while there is a "creature" (sort of) and things do get gross (read as gory) this film is far more than a story about a gory time in the arctic. Instead this is a film about a group of men that encounter something they can't understand and when they realize they are trapped and face something they never would have considered they must rely on each other as much as they can to get through the ordeal. This "alien" operates more like a disease and once it infects its host it assumes the identity of that host. Basically, you could be sitting in a room with your friend right now and he could be "the thing" and you wouldn't even know it, that is until his head splits open and tries to eat you, and trust me it can happen.
Much like Alien, The Thing is visually amazing and while it doesn't necessarily offer up an inordinate amount of scares it does offer a good time as these men must work together to survive all while not knowing who among them might be "infected".
When this HD DVD arrived I was baffled. I knew there was a following but traditionally I don't fall for those movies that have reached cult status. Recently Universal sent me the HD DVD for Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness and I watched it, or should I say suffered through it, but I didn't see a reason to bash a cult favorite. What's the need? However, when I find a movie like The Thing I think it is important to spread the word. This movie made $13.7 million at the box-office, but the appearance of the movie on HD DVD certainly signifies this is more than the low rent horror I mistakenly took it for.
In high definition this film looks fantastic, which is a real testament considering it was released 24 years ago and features a ton of make-up and visual effects without the aide of computer effects. Granted there are moments toward the end of the film where stop-motion animation was used and it is entirely obvious, but at that point you are so involved in the movie it doesn't even matter. However, there are some explosions at the end of the film viewed from afar and some up close and these are picture perfect set against the dark night sky. As for the audio it is Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 and it sounds good. This has become my sentiment for the majority of HD DVDs to this point only because DTS, for some reason, has not been featured on many discs and I just recently upgraded my player to be able to read the Dolby Digital TrueHD tracks, which this disc does not feature.
On a special feature front you are getting all the goods that were featured on the special edition DVD release, and they are good. Favorites of mine are the obvious choices with the 80-minute making-of documentary and the lively audio commentary featuring John Carpenter and star Kurt Russell. Russell certainly enjoyed making this movie as did Carpenter and it is like two old friends getting together for the first time in a long time and not missing a beat. As for the documentary it features a lot of interviews and behind-the-scenes looks, it is just unfortunate that they don't actually have a lot (or any) behind-the-scenes footage. I would have really liked to have seen some of the making of some of these scenes, especially after hearing effects guru Rob Bottin describe the process. The rest of the special features sort of just build off this documentary and show you a little more of what you missed such as seeing the additional stop-motion animation footage that was shot, a scene that would have been very cool if they had mastered it, but it was properly left on the cutting room floor.
Overall, this is a fantastic pick-up whether you have an HD DVD player and buy this version or go out and buy the special edition DVD. The Thing is a real gem of the horror genre and a film I will go back to just as often as I pop Alien into the player, and yes, Alien is better than Aliens, it is not a typo.