“THE THING” 2011 MOVIE REVIEW. A New Decade. A Brand New Fear.

“THE THING” PRESS PREVIEW

Be warned that “the thing” is not something you should take lightly.

It could be a blood-sucking demon that has been inadvertently unleashed, so flee, for heaven’s sake.

We start, as in this case, with a small expedition of Norwegian scientists inclusive of a pretty female palaeontologist Kate Lloyd (Marie Elizabeth Winstead), who are all bent on recovering historical relics for fossil examinations in an isolated Antarctic base.

They stumble onto an extraterrestrial ship that had sunk over 100,000 years ago, buried beneath the deep-freeze waters in the Antarctica.

There’s an awesome, additional bonus that comes with the finding: we are drawn into another startling discovery, that of a frozen alien monster that’s seemingly dead.

These smart alecs intend to bring the surprise snatch back to mankind for fossil analysis to create history.

Heard of the adage, just “let sleeping dogs lie”?

Some people won’t.  Yet, if they did, we won’t be having this story.

Jubilation brings about elation and they begin to throw caution to the four winds, even to the extent of drilling into the creature’s skin to extract a tissue sample from the lifeless body without a proper projection.

What happens next?

The beast is angry when awakened.

It takes on a rampage and it’s total mayhem from then on.

The ferocious demon displays menacing, crabby pincer-like tentacles, rears its ugly head and swiftly escapes.

But not for long.

It returns with a vengeance, to wreak havoc and as quickly as it kills, it also seeks elusive refuge by “entering” the body of the victim.

The extraterrestrial demon has the uncanny ability to mimic any life form it encounters. You’ll cringe as you witness a man’s decapitated open-mouthed head sprouting spider’s legs scampering across the floor.

In an utter confusion of paranoia, the remaining frightened survivors fight to stay alive, distrusting one another.  Who’s alien? Who’s human?

It is a tough escape route that’s fraught with deadly perils.

“THE THING 2011″ is a prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 classic of the same name, and inevitably cinematic comparisons will be made.

It’s a field day for armchair critics.

Let’s say each version has its own merits.

This is a brand new decade, thereby inciting a brand new fear.

The ingredients of strong creature violence and gore are all here, and you will be treated to scores of  ghastly perversions of the alien body.

This is a mind-bending hermaphrodite that possesses phallic tentacles as well as a vagina dentata.

Yeah, the animators made good use of the lush abundance of magnificent post effects.

The definitive body horror effects displaying the alien’s shape contortions are a nauseous sight to behold.

A chilly soundtrack spookily unfolds an enigmatic terror story.

First-time feature director Matthjis van Heijningen Jr does an admirable job in building up and maintaining the film’s suspense and claustrophobia.

Take heed of ‘THE THING”.

It augers a fierce supernatural force that guards a portal to the past.

Once you open this pandora’s  box, you incur the wrath of a sleeping alien.

If you defy the order, then be prepared for the chills.

You’d call it real fear, in real time, in a new decade where there are new rules.

Be warned, chum.