John Carpenter's "The Thing" is a perfect movie with a perfect ending. The Master of Horror's bleak-and-ultra-gory adaptation of John W. Campbell's sci-fi horror novella "Who Goes There?" was a box office bomb when released to theaters in June 1982, but time has been more than kind to the film. It's now considered one of the greatest horror films ever made, if not one of the greatest films, period. Set at a United States research station in Antarctica, the movie explores what happens when a creature capable of assimilating human lifeforms sets a group of snowbound, stir-crazy men against each other. It's a gripping paranoid thriller, a blisteringly cynical commentary on race relations, and a dazzlingly squeamish showcase for the practical effects work of the retired maestro Rob Bottin.
Just about everything that made Carpenter's "The Thing" is impossible to duplicate today. No studio would ever invest that heavily in Bottin's elaborate creature creations, nor would they allow an R-rated horror movie to end on such an unsettlingly quiet note (won't anyone think of the Cinemascores!). Perhaps most crucially, it'd be hard to track down character actors as vividly identifiable as Wilford Brimley, Charles Hallahan, Richard Dysart, and Donald Moffat.
When Universal tried to capitalize on the original film's popularity in 2011, they coughed up the badly compromised prequel, which was confusingly also titled "The Thing." When that movie also bombed, the potential for a franchise seemingly went up in flames with it.
Most horror fans are happy to leave the perfection of Carpenter's movie alone. But Carpenter, who's typically down on sequels, has left the door to a follow-up cracked open of late. And he just teased the possibility of "The Thing 2" again.
Does Carpenter Dare Go There Again?
During a Q&A at last weekend's Texas Frightmare Weekend, a fan asked Carpenter if Keith David's Childs, who's last seen sharing a bottle of J&B whiskey with Kurt Russell's MacReady, has been assimilated by the creature at the end of the movie. Carpenter always dodges this question, but this time he gave a more intriguing answer.
As you can see in this video (hat tip to Creepy Catalog), Carpenter said, "I have been sworn to secrecy, okay, because there may be, I don't know if there will be, there may be a 'Thing 2.'"
Would Carpenter take the reins once again? Carpenter hasn't made a feature since 2010's "The Ward," but he told the Texas Frightmare crowd that he recently directed a shot-in-Prague series titled "John Carpenter's Suburban Screams" remotely. Carpenter is five years younger than contemporary Martin Scorsese, who just completed a three-and-a-half-hour epic, so who's to say he's not up for another gooey go-round with "The Thing?" This is all highly speculative, but the notion of Carpenter reteaming with Russell and David (even if they're human popsicles) is too delicious to ignore.
Watch this space for updates!
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