CinemaDome: Alien vs The Thing

Staying with horror...but let's see if we can get this thing (har har) back on track...



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I love The Thing and John Carpenter might be my favorite direct based solely on how many of his movies I enjoy, but this is an easy choice for me.

If I were to attempt to assemble a "Top 5/10" list of movies, Alien would be #3, and likely tied with Aliens. There is no atmosphere in any other movie I get more wrapped up in. I even find a lot of interest in the weird stories surrounding the movie, the Kenner toys pulled off the shelves, the space jockey destroyed by religious fantatic a because they thought it was satanic. My love for Alien is nothing short of thorough.

Vote: Alien

Oh man... now this is a tough challenge. These are both excellent films, with similar themes of hostile environment and suspicious people. I think Alien is the most "important" film of the two. But honestly I enjoy The Thing more, and its cast is better. I'd say 4 out of 5 times if I was going to select one of these to watch, I'd choose The Thing.

Vote: The Thing

I have re-watched both of these movies within the last 12 months.

Alien: A bold mixture of horror and science-fiction. The science-fiction element was striking for portraying space travelers as blue collar workers with a crappy job, as opposed to the bright, shiny, executive future depicted around that time in Star Trek, Space: 1999, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The horror element was a completely new monster with a very distinctive look and a complex but coherent biology. The atmosphere was excellent, and terrifying, spawning a slew of sequels. Some fine acting, especially by Sigourney Weaver and Yaphet Kotto. Wonderful practical effects. Thrilling story. This is just an all-around great movie.

The Thing: Although technically considered a re-make of a classic horror movie, The Thing actually hews more closely to the original short story "Who Goes There?", by John W. Campbell. Kurt Russell and Keith David turn in great performances, though the rest of the cast is just adequate. John Carpenter does a great job at depicting the Antarctic setting, and building an intense and eerie atmosphere. Some of the practical effects are spectacular, while others look a bit hokey. Great story.

Although I am a big fan of The Thing, I feel that it is not quite as good as Alien, in terms of originality, acting, and special effects. Vote: Alien.

Two favourites. H.R. Giger. Vote: Alien

They're both great movies... normally I would just say Alien is an original IP Thing is a remake so Alien it is but this is a little different for me. I like Alien a lot, great atmosphere, great acting, solid script and a damned creepy story. But I don't think it's reaching for anything higher than horror sci-fi.. not really. If it is I'm just not seeing it. There is a ton of art in Alien, don't get me wrong, but it's not the kind of existential dread, it's not the kind of philosophical madness that underpins The Thing.

See, I figure Alien will probably win because it is, for all intensive purposes, the better genre film. The Thing is a great genre film, but it's also more than that and some of that takes away just a little bit from it's genre film appeal. It's an arty movie by comparison.. it's also funnier but that's probably just because of Kurt Russell. Who surprisingly turns in a very subdued performance in this one. Alien is the winner as a genre film, even in areas it doesn't really focus on like social politics.. but The Thing cuts to the heart of who we are in a way that few films can and it does it while being a great genre film at the same time. As much as I like Alien and love that world and as much as I despise re-makes and borrowed worlds I have to give it to The Thing for exceeding every expectation I could have had for a film of it's nature.

Vote: The Thing

Hm. This is a good one. It contrasts John Carpenter's greatest film (although my favorite is still Escape from New York ("Harold?!")) against Ridley Scott's second-greatest film.

You have The Thing, which has great atmosphere and solid performances from Russell and David. Carpenter's willingness to let images tell the tale and lead the mystery is well-served by the story here, just as it was in Halloween. The tension created, not just by the lack of knowledge of who could be the "real" enemy but also by the visceral nature of just what transforming into the enemy really entails, as displayed by the gruesome effects, allows Carpenter to play with multiple levels of horror. The audience squirms not just because they're waiting for the attack from the darkness, but because they're recoiling from the walking head with the eyestalks. Carpenter does well to maintain that dual approach. He also hired Ennio Morricone to do the score, which is kind of a mixed blessing. On the one hand: Ennio Morricone, man! OTOH, both of Carpenter's prior hits (Halloween, Escape) had been scored by him, very effectively, with electronic keyboards. When he replaced some of Morricone's orchestral work with those keyboards, it created kind of a mixed message in the same way that some people perceive a conflict between the subtle horror of shadows and the explosion of blood and rubber that is the later appearances of the creature.

And then there's Alien. As Shellhead noted, the depiction of science fiction in its industrial sense is a really appealing part of the film. It's SF with a "realistic" bent (it's even in the tagline: "In space, no one can hear you scream.", which is true, if you've, for some reason, gone out the airlock...); from the blue collar nature of the cast to the long shots of the descent to the moon of LV-426, showing just how long it really takes to achieve orbit and perform a landing and so on. This was two years after Star Wars and this film was symbolic of a director and a studio stepping away from the galactic prophecies and laser blasters that had become embedded in everything (even James Bond .) These were ordinary people doing an ordinary job that just happened to run across extraordinary circumstances and Scott displayed a great deal of restraint in revealing those circumstances. There's a great scene where Kane, Dallas, and Lambert discover the cockpit of the crashed ship. Scott pulls back to reveal the dead pilot and lets the audience absorb what's in front of them; no close-up, no orchestral crash, just an exploration of a really weird moment for these ordinary people. And, speaking of scores, Jerry Goldsmith's moody themes only heighten everything that happens on the crashed ship and later on the Nostromo.

They're both horror/SF films. They're directed by two of my favorites when they were doing their best work. But, in the end, Alien is simply the better film.

The Thing is top-notch, but so is Alien. I'm going with Alien.

Impossible choice.

Alien

Alien is my favourite film of all time. Giger, cinema verite-like crew sequences, the horror, the pacing. Perfection.

So, "Who Goes There" is one of the first sci-fi story that I read, or at least the first I remember reading - which is even more important. So, I loved The Thing (and Kurt Russel. He and Bill Murray can do whatever, and I'd still enjoy watching them, because they're just too damn charismatic). But are you kidding me... The Thing is good fun and all, but it's just not in the same league as Alien. Actually, now that I mentioned Bill Murray, a pairing of The Thing with Ghostbusters would be a fairer thing. Alien is up the there with Space Odyssey, There Will Be Blood, 7 Samurai, that kind of stuff (and winning).
So, yeah, Alien, and if it doesn't win by a landslide I'll lose my faith in good taste and humanity in general

I dunno...when I want to spend time in the Alien universe I reach for Aliens. In fact, I haven't seen Alien but once or twice and Aliens dozens.

Nothing does The Thing better than The Thing.

EDIT: I've got something for Ghostbusters...

THE THING. Goddamn this is such a great movie. Rob Bottin set a new standard for visual effects. I love everything about this movie. I use the word "movie" here on purpose, because as an entertainment, I think it's much better than ALIEN. As a film, ie, art, you can make a case for ALIEN, the set design is amazing, but the story is soooo played.

You guys are doing this in purpose to drive me to suicide, right?