The Thing

Current IMDB Rating: 8.1/10 (#171 in the Top 250)
My Rating: 8.3/10

It has been a long, long while since a movie has truly sent a chill down my spine and this movie has done just that. You have all of the elements of classic psychological horror here: a secluded location, the option of a horrific fate, and the extremes of mistrust which develop. It is, however, not a perfect film because, I feel, that the people who made it took it's believability factor too far in the last 15 minutes or so and assumed that if you had gotten that far in the movie, then you would just accept anything that happened from that point on.

The story follows a group of Antarctic researchers as they discover an alien presence living among them and imitating those in their group. The alien takes over the body of any living creature in order to survive and tries to get those around it to trust it so that it can take over their bodies as well. As the movie progresses, the researchers become less and less trusting of those in their group to the point of tying several members up and testing their blood to make sure they're human. This scene is one of the most nerve-wracking parts of any movie I've seen because as the alien is exposed, the other members of the group are tied up and cannot get away.

I think the ending of the movie left something more to be wanted as well. To leave the characters alone in the Antarctic is less satisfying than letting the audience know they actually survived and that fighting for their lives for the entire movie was worth it. It left me with what I call "The Descent feeling" where, in the American version of that film one of the characters made it out alive, whereas in the international version all of the characters died. I felt that the international version was more creative, but as a film the American version was more satisfying; that is the same with The Thing.