Imagine for a minute: you’re in the most remote place in the world, thousands of mile away from civilized life. It’s freezing cold. Among you and the companions you’ve spent the last several months alone with is a horrible monster that kills people, mutilates them, and turns them into disgusting abominations. This monster looks like one or more of you, and you have no idea who it is. Rescue is not coming.
If this situation sounds terrifying to you, you’re not alone. This is the central premise of The Thing, 1982 horror film from the master himself, John Carpenter. Kurt Russell leads a group of scientists, engineers, and other professionals at a research outpost in Antarctica when their base is infiltrated by an alien horror that infects people, kills them, and shapeshifts into their appearance and voice. It’s hailed as one of the best visual horror pieces ever made, and while I cannot disagree with the merit of its grotesque practical effects, this movie earned a place on my personal Halloween list because of the psychological horror it evokes.
Paranoia has been a recurring theme in my Horrorfest list. As someone who works in mental health, I have observed firsthand what severe paranoia can do to a person, and let me tell you it is one of the scariest things I have ever seen. Human beings are social animals by nature; we seek out relationships and trust because it is inherent to both our modern functioning and our natural evolution. What paranoia does is strip that natural behavior, that natural defense mechanism away from us and replace it with the overwhelming dread that we are truly alone. The Thing is terrifying not just because of what it does; there are several movies with monsters who do far worse things to their victims than this film. The Thing is terrifying because it transforms the survivors into monsters long before they’re infected. Almost every scene in the movie is spent in extreme tension, with characters hurling accusations at each other, warning shots firing, alliances breaking left and right all because The Thing has taken the one thing they needed to survive: trust. This movie has a ton of terrific film strengths going for it, but the one factor I always come back to is the desperation it portrays when people lose one of the central things that make use human–each other. Perhaps it’s a pretty good cautionary tale for today’s world, but what do I know? I’m just a head being ferried about by a bunch of disgusting spider legs.
Tonight we visit the David Lynch film Eraserhead, a movie that my compatriot WiseSage once suggested is not a horror movie, thus convincing me that he has truly seen the depths of hell if he thinks that horrific old woman isn’t the spookiest thing this side of the void.
