Review of The Thing from Another World

Wonderfully kitsch piece of Cold War paranoia in which a team of American scientists dig up an alien being from the North Pole only to be terrorised by it once it defrosts. Famously the inspiration for John Carpenter’s The Thing, there is little to compare between the two aside from the concept and setting.

In this film the alien is rather interestingly revealed to be plant-based, able to reproduce via seeds which gorge on blood for sustenance. However he is still a Sci-Fi staple – a giant man with claws for hands who roars for human flesh, and you can’t help but feel warmth for such characters.

The film features strong performances considering the subject matter, in particular Kenneth Tobey as Captain Hendry, and Douglas Spencer as the newspaperman along for the ride, Scotty.
As with such old B-Movies there isn’t much action, it’s mostly talking and debating about origins and solutions and these moments are the film’s strength, allowing characters to come through and a large amount of humour to be infused in the dialogue. This is the main plus point for this particular film – it is extremely funny and enjoyable, which you can imagine in its heyday mixing with the (now tame) horror exceedingly well for audiences, making it quite a hit.

Now, it does look a bit hokey but there is a lot to love.