Editor Reviews:

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With its modest special effects, lean plot, and small cast of lesser stars, this 1951 thriller remains a sturdy blueprint for fusing horror and science fiction. The formula has been employed countless times since, fleshed out with more extensive and elaborate production values, and manned by higher profiled marquee names, but the results have yet to improve on The Thing from Another World, Howard Hawks's lone foray into sci-fi.

The story begins as military airmen are dispatched to a remote Arctic research station where scientists have detected the crash of a spacecraft. An effort to retrieve the saucer-shaped vehicle fails, but the team returns to the station with the frozen body of its sole occupant. When the extraterrestrial pilot is accidentally thawed, the crew, headed by a tough-talking pilot (Kenneth Tobey), grapples with a massive, chlorophyll-based humanoid (James Arness) thirsty for blood and in no mood for galactic diplomacy.

Hawks takes only a production credit for this low-budget exercise, but his filmmaking style transcends Christian Nyby's nominal direction: rapid-fire, overlapping dialogue, an ensemble of comrades whose professionalism is tempered by wisecracks, and unsentimental female characters (embodied by feisty romantic interest Margaret Sheridan) recall Hawks's signature works, while propelling the plot over any potential gaps in credibility. It's hardly surprising, then, that The Thing from Another World remains among the most influential science fiction movies ever shot, or that it remains exciting entertainment a half century later. --Sam Sutherland

Rating : - This is the first of my of my favorite THINGS
This is not intended as a review really, but more of a brief appreciation with a nod toward the Thanskgiving season. I'd actually meant to do a short series of these with the basic theme being films for which I am genuinely thankful; Movies that have been really important or meaningful in my life for one reason or another. For instance one taught me an extremely important lesson that I hope I'll never forget, another turned me on to martial arts film and Asian culture etc. But you know how it is (I've paved half of Hell already with my good intentions)and 6 pieces became 4 pieces which became 3 pieces, which I hope will at least be two. Since the very first film I remember seeing was the 1951 version of THE THING I can't imagine a better film with which to start. So here goes nothing.

For starters THE THING was NOT the movie from which I learned that life lesson I refered to above. It was the first movie I remember seeing as a child, Disney be damned. Before this movie there was nothing. THE THING was just plainly and simply the most incredible experience I had ever had in all of my 4 and 1/2 years of life. It absolutely terrified me and left me to imagine anthropmorphic monsters from space lurking behind every corner and hiding under every bed. So why the hell did I love it so much that I had to see any and every movie that even vaguely resembled and still do to this very day? I have no idea nor do I really care to know why. That little movie has not only kept me entertained (in a neurotic way) but has also been responsible for my inevitable gravitation towards conventions and all other manner of fannish endeavors. So you could say with some validity that it ultimately wound up shaping my entire life. Pathetic to some I suppose, but I've been rather happy with it.

And so I'm thankful for the scary movie that started the whole "thing" off.