The “hated” movie that left John Carpenter depressed: “Even by science-fiction fans”
American filmmaker John Carpenter rose to prominence as the director of Halloween, which he also co-wrote and scored. It’s the kind of introduction to the movie business that clearly marked out the path into the Hollywood paradigm for its maker.
The film was a landmark of both independent filmmaking and the slasher genre, becoming one of the most influential horror movies ever made. It suggested that Carpenter was a voice to be heard and a man of change, he would make movies that were determined to move the evolution of the movie business along the dial.
He followed Halloween with The Fog, which received mixed critical reception, although it is now considered a horror cult classic. Escape From New York came next, which was well-received, cementing Carpenter as a prominent name in the film industry. However, his subsequent release, The Thing, didn’t fare so well.
The sci-fi horror was released in 1982, with Kurt Russell leading the movie as helicopter pilot R.J MacReady. The film was adapted from John W. Campbell Jr.’s Who Goes There? by Bill Lancaster, which had previously been used as the source material for 1951’s The Thing From Another World.
Although the film had a decent budget of $15million and featured notable stars, it failed miserably upon its release, only grossing $19.6million. Moreover, critics were unbelievably harsh on Carpenter’s movie, with the New York Times reviewer Vincent Canby calling The Thing “too phony looking to be disgusting”, “instant junk”, and a “quintessential moron movie of the ’80s.”
He also called it “a foolish, depressing, overproduced movie that mixes horror with science fiction to make something that is fun as neither one thing or the other.” Canby added, “It’s entertaining only if one’s needs are met by such sights as those of a head walking around on spiderlike legs; autopsies on dogs and humans in which the innards explode to take on other, not easily identifiable forms.”
In response to the poor reviews, Carpenter was understandably upset. In 2008, he discussed how the harsh reception made him feel: “I take every failure hard,” he said. “The one I took the hardest was The Thing. My career would have been different if that had been a big hit.”
He added: “The movie was hated. Even by science-fiction fans. They thought that I had betrayed some kind of trust, and the piling on was insane. Even the original movie’s director, Christian Nyby, was dissing me.” Thankfully, the response would soon change and Carpenter’s picture would eventually get the due praise it rightfully received.
It didn’t help that Steven Spielberg’s science-fiction blockbuster E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which provided a more appealing story about aliens, was released the same summer as The Thing. Carpenter’s bleak vision was not as commercially viable as Spielberg’s family-friendly tale of the loveable E.T, which raked in a whopping $619million worldwide.
However, The Thing is now considered a cult classic, even spawning a prequel film of the same name in 2011. In recent years, Carpenter’s film has ended up on lists of the greatest movies of all time and is recognised as a hugely influential entry to the sci-fi and horror genre.
