STEVE HAYES: Tired Old Queen at the Movies

THE THING (1951)
A creepy short story entitled "Who Goes There?" provides the basis of Tired Old Queen at the Movies' 4th of July Sci-fi chiller, Howard Hawks' THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD aka THE THING directed by Christian Nyby.
A space ship crashes near a remote outpost in the North Pole. The rescue party finds something buried in the ice that seems to have been ejected from the crash and frozen on impact. They take it back to the post to examine it and when it thaws, all hell breaks loose. Although directed by Nyby, Hawks' steady hand can be seen though out. The fast pacing, over-lapping dialogue and funny sexual banter, traditional in all Hawks films is there.
The lack of big stars in the major roles helps to make the terror all the more real. You can see the influence this film had on future directors of the genre such at Ridley Scott's ALIEN (1979) and John Carpenter's early 80's re-make.
Where is IT? What is IT? What will IT do next? And will IT do it to me?
Who goes there? Howard Hawks' THE THING!



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