“I was poison”: The 1982 movie that almost sent John Carpenter into early Hollywood exile
There are certain instances in cinematic history when everyone seems to have gotten it wrong, with critics being dismissive, audiences looking the other way, and the industry itself seeming to throw up its hands, and there are few greater examples of this than the release of The Thing, the 1982 horror film from John Carpenter, based on the 1951 classic The Thing From Another World.
Carpenter was hot off the success of Escape From New York and united with Kurt Russell, and thus, anticipation was high to see what they would do next, but The Thing had the unfortunate luck of debuting in theatres only a few weeks after ET the Extra-Terrestrial, a massive game-changer that swept every record and topped Star Wars to be the highest-grossing film of all time.
It was perhaps the fact that a soft-hearted, optimistic science fiction film was doing so well that audiences didn’t show any interest in a darker, grittier approach to the genre, proven further by the fact that The Thing opened the same weekend as Blade Runner, which was also considered a flop.
Blade Runner received a mixed reception that is surprising when considering that it’s now considered to be a masterpiece, but in fairness, the theatrical cut was saddled by an unnecessary voiceover and a ‘happy ending’ that had been imposed by the studio after a disastrous series of test screenings.
However, The Thing seemed to be exactly what Carpenter had in mind, and received scathing reviews, to the point where it’s rather shocking to read how nasty the response was, as today it is considered to be a masterclass in tension that featured some of the most innovative makeup effects ever.
The Thing wasn’t just a bomb, but a film that threatened the rest of Carpenter’s career, as the director said that he feared he would never be able to work again: “When The Thing wasn’t the big hit it was expected to be, I couldn’t find a gig for a while. I was poison. People thought I couldn’t deliver. I was crushed. I was miserable. I was much younger, so I wasn’t that equipped to deal with failure.”
Carpenter wasn’t out of work for too much longer, as he directed the Stephen King horror film Christine the following year, and made the hit sci-fi romantic adventure Starman the year after. The fact that his other films were relatively well-received is perhaps the most confusing aspect of The Thing’s failure, as the same critics who seemed to be on board with Halloween, The Fog, and They Live just seemed to miss the mark completely with his 1982 classic.
Carpenter was on a stretch when he was making masterpieces right after each other, so perhaps the reception to The Thing ended up stinging less. Nonetheless, the film eventually developed a reputation of not just being underrated, but a canonical horror title. It was a remarkable achievement in practical filmmaking that managed to capture the fear of the unknown with the paranoia of the Cold War, making use of the isolated space to create maximum tension.
While the original The Thing from Another World was rumoured to have been ghost-directed by Howard Hawks, Carpenter’s favourite director, the 1982 version surpassed it in every regard imaginable.
