The Thing (2011) - van Heijningen Jr.
Danish filmmaker Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s interpretation of what happened to the Norwegian camp prior to the iconic 1982 Carpenter thriller The Thing, is a noble attempt that comes up short. It lacks Carpenters trademark slowburn, building up suspense. The original is full of characters and class tensions, these Scandinavians just confirm their stereotypes, that they are human lettuces. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is thrown in the mix as a smart American Paleontologist, Kate, to give this prequel a slight break the otherwise sausage fest. There is a little bit of reverse power dynamic when Kate screams "OPEN YOUR MOUTH!" to all the burly bearded Nords to check their fillings to see if they were human or not (the thing can't duplicate anything that is not organic material). The pacing too fast, effects too CG and interpretation too literal, this thing works as a so-so horror and a novelty item but that's as far as it goes.
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