John Carpenter's 1982 The Thing. don't think I'd seen it since part of a John Carpenter and/or Kurt Russell binge at uni, I think I even did the same double bill I did the first time I watched it, which was following it wit Ghosts of Mars.
The Thing is excellent, what I love about Carpenter is he almost seems to come up with a premise and then let it sort of write itself, rather than trying to force plot elements into it, so everything seems to happen naturally from the circumstances, and The Thing might be one of his best examples of this. Also, the creature makeup/practical effects barely seems dated in 2018, so it must have freaked people out a load back then...still not sure why they have flamethrowers on the base though, but I'm willing to believe there'd be a reason.
Ghost of Mars...doesn't pretend to be anything more than what it is, a trashy, slick action horror sci-fi that almost tries to do too much at once (matriarchal society for no apparent reason other than to flip the usual gender dynamics of this sort of film a bit). Everyone seems to know what sort of film they are in, especially Messrs Statham and Cube, who are both great fun in it. I didn't finish it a I was tired, will finish it off tonight...it is a very average film I just find Carpenter directs extremely watchable films (Big Trouble...)
An 8/10 for me.
