The Thing (region 2)

Probably the goriest Science-Fiction film ever gets a welcome release on Region 2 DVD from Columbia Tristar Home Video. We all know the story of the 12 man research team based in Antartica, it was voted number 9 in the recent SGM Top Ten list, and now you can enjoy it the way nature (well John Carpenter anyway) intended it!

Headed by Garry (Donald Moffat), but led by MacReady (Kurt Russell) the team's (basically non-existant) research is interrupted by a low flying helicopter opening fire on a dog.

After shooting Bennings (Peter Maloney) in the leg the unknown intruder is shot dead by Garry and the fun and gore really begin. Dr.Cooper (Richard Dysart) discovers that the helicopter was from the Norwegian base a short distance away. MacReady flies Doc up there and discover the whole crew are dead and a lump of ice that something was thawed out of. After viewing some video tapes they fly back up and discover a spaceship partially buried in the ice.

Once the dog is placed in with the rest of the pack we are the introduced to the shape-shifting alien in full glorious (or should that be gorious) technicolour. After the initial attack the film starts to get more claustophobic as the team start to realise that one or more of them may be the alien. One by one they are taken over by the alien, and one by one they are picked off by the remaining team members, until there are only two left (if you are one of the few who haven't seen the Thing then I won't spoil it by telling you which two).

Also included on the disc is an 80 minute documentary - John Carpenters The Thing:Terror Takes Shape, which includes interviews with the director, stars, special effects people, set designers etc. And original documentary location footage. The documentary is even chaptered.(A great job done by Sharpline Arts)

This is a direct from Region 1 copy and for my money the best Region 2 disc that I have seen and should be included in everybodies collection.