Reed Alexander's Horror Review of 'The Thing From Another World' (1951)

This is the first movie adaptation of Who Goes There, by John W. Campbell. Horror Express (1972) was the other one, but unlike Horror Express, which I can only recommend to Riffers, The Thing from Another World is actually really good and I can recommend it to Horror Heads (Riffers too, but I digress). Hell, even by today's standards it still is really good, AND it was the inspiration for my second all-time-top horror movie The Thing (1982).

I must have seen this movie half a dozen times and honestly, it never gets boring. Sure, it's antiquated, nowhere near as stimulating as the remake by John Carpenter, but it's still damn good. Unlike Susperia (1977), which is only good for vintage horror, and you have to appreciate the fact that it's antiquated, The Thing from Another World is actually still good even by modern standards. I could absolutely see someone making what would be the equivalent of a slasher movie with modern techniques based on the format of this movie.

Yeah, the lingo is old-timey, but the acting comes off as very natural, unlike most movies of this age where the acting feels more like theater acting. The actors almost banter. They sometimes talk overtop of each other, like people would in real life. They get everyone in a room, with lines they prepared, and each line triggers the next series of lines, one after the other, with a seamless flow.

And the FXs are simple. Lighting, filters, set, rubber monster. The brilliance is in the simplicity. Nothing complicated, just a dark gritty, fight for survival against an unstoppable monster. Seriously, this is done all the time in today's modern cinema and it still works. There is no need for complicated FXs or CGI, just back to the basics of form and formula. This is why I suggest the movie could be reshot as a slasher, since the plot more closely follows modern slashers.

But there's something special about this movie. When I watch it, I'm five years old again, watching horror movies with my mom. It just takes me back. It's iconic. It's like a part of my history. This movie and many movies like it are a part of why I'm a Horror Head. That means this 1951 black and white holds space with movies like Alien (1979) and the entire Friday the 13th Franchise. It connected with me. An old black and white, arguably a B-movie, from a generation decades before mine, connected with me. That right there is the real test of good cinema. Connecting deeply with the audience. It's one of the reasons I applaud things like well used tropes and cliches. Something I talked about in my review of Camp Dread (2014). Writers and Directors have a very limited time to connect the audience with the movie, to immerse them. They need to tap into things like cliche to connect the viewers to the plot and characters quickly. This movie did that with me, and it still does to this day. I can connect with characters from a bygone time I have absolutely no relationship to.

I mean, it's not perfect. It's chock-full of the typical 1950s prejudices and ideas of science fiction, but it's still so damn good. It's like how we all now know that Alfred Hitchcock was a royal piece of shit, but now that he's dead and can't benefit from his movies anymore, we can watch them through a modern lens and still appreciate them. Just like H. P. Lovecraft who has been re-appropriated by the minorities he use to shit on.

Listen, it might seem like homework to some of you Horror Heads out there, but movies like this are a part of your culture. They are required viewing and there is absolutely no excuse not to watch them. I promise you won't be disappointed.