Grade: C+
Synopsis: A group of scientists and Air Force servicemen find themselves targeted by a vampiric alien organism at a remote Arctic outpost.
The Thing from Another World is a solid monster movie that served to usher in the 1950’s era of alien thrillers and atomic disasters. This, despite nearly being ruined by a few ill-conceived lines in the script.
Despite direction being credited to Christian Nyby, it’s long been believed that producer Howard Hawks took over direction during production. This bears out in the finished product, which echoes the themes of male comradery and claustrophobic spaces seen in so many of Hawks’ other films.
The cast is solid, and the film has more than a few iconic images, the best of which is the various scientists and servicemen spreading out over the ice to determine the shape of the object contained within, only to realize they’ve formed a perfect circle.
But despite all this, The Thing from Another World remains a film about a giant vampiric carrot. Why, oh why did the screenwriters go out of their way to put this image in our heads? They could have simply said its organic chemistry is more similar to a plant than a mammal, but no, they had to specifically say carrot. Thus, when James Arness finally makes his appearance, part of you can’t help but chuckle at the notion that he’s a giant, growling carrot. It comes very close to ruining the movie.
Fortunately, if you can get past the carrot image, The Thing from Another World really is a landmark sci-fi horror film, one that inspired countless imitations, not to mention generations of filmmakers.
