The Thing

Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Eric Christian Olsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ulrich Thomsen

We've seen the premake and marveled at how good it could have been. Now, with the memory of that box office miss still floating freely in our heads, yet another remake of John Carpenter's classic The Thing has reared its other heads.

In his editorial on The Thing premake, Michael Felsher mused that something had to have gone wrong during post-production on the flick. The film just switches gears into a CGI-laden mess. Where were the practical effects? Well, sadly ... we're about to show them to you.

The premake of the John Carpenter classic The Thing is on its way to DVD and Blu-ray, and if you didn't see it in theatres, now's your chance to decide which camp you'll fall into - forgiving and happy, indifferent, or flaming pissed.

To call the premake of The Thing a mixed bag is a bit of an understatement. Even after all these weeks have passed, we still can't shake the feeling that there was behind-the-scenes turmoil we may never be privy to. The film for the most part was a decent combination of CGI and practical effects--that is, until the third act, when some sort of switch was flipped and we got an entirely different movie.

Here we go, folks. A real Dinner for Fiends. No scheduling conflicts. No bird attacks. The usual suspects (Creepy, Buz, Foy, Fini, Kasch) have finally all assembled for a new episode. You would think with only two new wide release horror movies this past month, there wouldn’t be that much to talk about; yet, somehow we jam packed it to feature length.

It's only been a few weeks since the release of director Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr.'s version of The Thing, and to tell you the truth, I'd all but forgotten about it until this week's Motion Picture Purgatory arrived from Trembles. Check it out, and see if you agree with his take on the flick.

The box office has been in a slump for several weeks, and horror offerings in particular have been DOA for months. That all changed this weekend when Paranormal Activity 3 not only officially staked its claim as the new reigning king of the Halloween box office, it became the biggest horror movie opening of all time.

Ever wonder what would happen if worlds collided? Or, for that matter, if the space time continuum gets disrupted and the original cast of a film would settle down for a remake years later? Well, you're about to find out as the guys at JoBlo have conjured up a short that is nothing less than absolute magic!

First off, consider me to be a full-fledged obsessive fan of John Carpenter's The Thing. It was one of the formative films of my youth and remains to this day one of my all time favorite movies...period. It's an expert examination of escalating paranoia and pressure-cooker suspense with a stellar cast, nimble and effective screenwriting, dread-soaked photography and score, and expert finely-tuned direction that never missteps once. All of this, and one of the most kick-ass "downer" endings that earns its hard-won finality from a film whose tone signals death and resigned self-sacrifice from the very get-go.

Remember the box office report I wrote a few weeks ago in which I complained that some of the horror flops of August/September should have been held until October for a better chance to make some Halloween box office? Well, scratch that theory.

The prequel to John Carpenter's classic of the same name, The Thing, is finally opening in a theater near you, and as usual we want to help you decide if you should part with your hard earned dough by putting together this neat package of coverage.

With The Thing (review here) morphing its way into theatres tomorrow, we figured right about now would be a great time to give away some goodies to ya! Dig it!

In the upcoming Universal prequel The Thing (review here), Mary Elizabeth Winstead portrays paleontologist Kate Lloyd, who's recruited for a research expedition in the Arctic after a team of Norwegian scientists uncover an alien life form and its spaceship frozen deep within the icy terrain.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje may have made his name with his television roles as Mr. Eko from "Lost" or the downright chilling Simon Adebisi from HBO's "Oz" but it's beginning to look more and more likely that his stellar work on television has made for a smooth transition to the big screen with the multi-faceted actor's performances in flicks like Faster, G.I. Joe, Killer Elite and the upcoming Universal Studio's project The Thing (review here).