The Thing (1982)

It should come as no surprise that remaking older films is as old as film making itself. The popular versions of The Wizard of Oz and Ben-Hur are themselves remakes, as are many films that people don't really expect (the Will Smith version of I Am Legend was the third take on the Richard Matheson book, for example). While many of the remakes are just as good (or even superior) to the originals, cashing in on the original is always the point. What many forget is that you can cash in and still make a great movie. That is exactly what John Carpenter did with 1982's The Thing , a remake of 1951's The Thing from Another World, itself based on the novella Who Goes There? by John Campbell. The boredom and peace of an American scientific outpost in Antarctica is shattered when a helicopter from a nearby Norwegian base lands, apparently in pursuit of one of a sled dog. After one of the research team is shot, Garry (Donald Moffat), the head of the facil...