The Screen Addict | Things
A few years ago, De slag om de Schelde (2020) took the Dutch box-office by storm. Exactly ten years before this release, the film’s director Matthijs van Heijningen jr. took on the tricky job of helming the prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982).
Hailed by many as a stone-cold classic despite being a commercial failure upon release – it was up against a small art-house film about a friendly, candy-loving alien stranded on earth – it would terrify even the most seasoned filmmaker to attempt another stab at this SciFi masterpiece.
Kudos then to Van Heijningen. And aside from the huge cojones the director showed, I actually quite like the result. Made for a relatively modest $38 million, Van Heijningen and his team spent the money where it counts with these productions – on sets and special effects.
Rob Bottin’s superior puppetry has by and large been replaced with less effective CGI, but the spirit of the original is still there. Not in the least because the filmmakers were smart enough to recruit two other Effects Legends – Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. of Aliens (1986), Predator (1987) and Starship Troopers (1997) fame.
Script and story-wise, I think it was a clever idea to choose the prequel approach – I had always wondered what exactly happened at the Norwegian base. The quality here is also unsurprising, as screenwriter Eric Heisserer would go on to write Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016).
Spectacular imagery is not difficult to find in Canada where the film’s exteriors were shot, but DoP Michel Abramowicz really makes the most of every shiny surface. Gorgeous.
Not only Van Heijningen had the virtually impossible task to at least come close to Carpenter’s original – composer Marco Beltrami was given the extremely tall order of following up Ennio Morricone’s legendary score. The Maestro’s tune does make a nice little cameo appearance during the post-credits sequence though, which neatly ties the whole story into Carpenter’s film.
Obviously, I am not going to claim that the two soundtracks are interchangeable, but Beltrami’s music is perfectly appropriate for the new film – and that is by no means meant as a backhanded compliment.
Neither is “I actually quite like the result”, while on the subject. In fact, I am going to make a much stronger statement – I think Van Heijningen’s The Thing (2010) is the perfect prequel to a SciFi classic.
Solid recommend.
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Twitter (X): Robin Logjes | The Screen Addict