I saw The Thing when it first came out in the theater back in 1982. After all this time, it’s still one of my favorite alien movies. The Antarctic background was the perfect setting for this movie because of the isolation factor.

In the very beginning, you see an alien space craft hurtling toward Earth. Millions of years later, it is discovered by a Norwegian science team, who dig up the remains and bring it back to their station. We don’t know what happened to them until after the survivors are shot down by American scientists, who think they have gone mad.

The American team thinks that they have saved a dog from an untimely death. What they couldn’t know is the terror that had seeded itself inside the dog. Mac (the head honcho of the team) and Cooper (the doctor) fly to the Norwegian station and discover an atrocity that they can’t fathom. What’s more, they find a journal that chronicles the discovery of an alien spacecraft with an occupant that is still alive. The doctor brings a piece of the carnage, a corpse with two heads, back to their station for an autopsy.

That night, the dog is put into the kennel with the other dogs. The scientists, who resemble and act more like truck drivers, resume their dull routine until the alien decides to mutate inside the dog. From this point on, the men fight for survival against each other as well as the alien.

This movie was one of the best of its era. Had it been made today, I think there would be a lot less gore and more focus on the psychological terror.