By Chris Summerfield
John Carpenter, in my opinion is without doubt one of the greatest movie directors of the seventies and eighties, having created such trophy movies as Halloween, The Fog, and Assault on Precinct 13 and though Mr. Carpenter does not have any writing input in this movie, he sure makes it a gem.
The movie begins with two crazed Norwegians, trying to kill an Alaskan Malamute, hell bent on doing so, even risking and losing their life’s in the attempt, having chased it in to an American Antarctic research center.
The plot then begins to thicken as, R J MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Dr. Copper (Richard Dysart) two of the Americans based at the research center, fly by helicopter to the Norwegian base in search of answers to discover devastation and death, in particular a corpse of some form of mutant with two faces, they return the mutant corpse to their base so, Blair (Wilford Brimley) can carry out an autopsy on the creature, only to discover the mutant as the same organs as a human.
The small band of Americans based within the center soon realize their life’s are in danger, when the Alaskan Malamute seems to transform in to a sinister creature, that attacks the stations sled dogs though is torched by a flamethrower.
The plot thickens even more as the autopsy proves this alien life form could transform itself in to any living being, causing paranoia and a breakdown of trust within the team, one by one they die whilst desperately trying to put an end to the creature.
What I so like about this movie is, it portrays how easily trust can be broken and how destructive paranoia is; the flamethrower is used a lot in this movie and I like that, as fire is the most destructive force on the planet. The movie also as a nice pace about it and keeps you guessing on who is infected.
There are also some cool scenes within the movie, especially when the character, Norris (Charles Hallahan) suffers a heart attack and Dr Copper tries to revive him, only to see Norris’ chest open up like a mouth and bite Copper’s lower arms off.
This movie may be over thirty years old and was a remake, though its cleverly plotted and thought out and what is so frightening is the fact, in those lonely parts of the globe where man is against the elements and in new territory, who knows what we will discover and what is waiting. Don’t they say, “Curiosity killed the cat”
Rating: 7.5/10
