I want to keep an open mind about The Thing prequel, but let's just get it out in the open: I'm terrified.
The Thing isn't just a great horror movie - it's a great movie. Period. So when a team of filmmakers aspires to tell another story in that universe, there's a certain level of paranoia that the new film will undermine the original's legacy.
That said, we saw the first teaser for the new The Thing (that's what they're calling the prequel) and our interests have definitely been piqued. We're amateur cryptozoologists, we can't help but get stoked for a good monster movie!
Here's the breakdown:
It opens in New York (which, from our The Thing set visit, we know will open the film). Eric Christian Olsen's Adam invites Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Kate to join him on a job to Antartica, something he believes will be a life-changing for the paleontologist, an "opportunity to do something big."
The film relocates to Antartica, where the Norwegians from the original Thing are about to crack open a block of ice that contains...someTHING. The trailer intercuts a drill slowly splitting the ice with shots of the cast (Joel Edgerton, Winstead, Olsen, Lost's Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) looking terrified over...someTHING.
A title card: "In a place where there's nothing..." The trailer doesn't skimp on alien shots: tentacles, gaping mouths, the hatch to an alien spacecraft...and it looks practical, so wipe that sweat off your brow.
The end of that first title card? "...is...someTHING!" Short, but sweet.
Prepare to make Thing puns from now until the movie's release, April 29th 2011.
