A classic

Since it is a classic and it has inspired many directors such as Ridley Scott, John Frankenheimer, Tobe Hooper, and John Carpenter, so I was definitely eager to check it out. Honestly, I’m not really knowledgeable about those old horror flicks and except for ‘Nosferatu’, I still have to watch all the following : ‘King Kong’, ‘Frankenstein’, ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’, ‘The Wolfman’, ‘The Fly’,…. Anyway, it is always pretty neat to get acquainted with a new genre and I thought it was a pretty good flick indeed. Back then, they didn’t have monstrous budget (as a matter of fact, it was made with only 40,000 dollars) and they didn’t have such complex special effects or CGI like nowadays. In those days, it was all about the characters and what they were going through. Basically, there were 3 group of characters : the military, the scientists and the press (solely represented by Scotty). Each group had their own reaction towards the ‘thing’ and it was pretty interesting to see them discuss how they should handle the situation. I thought it was also pretty neat that, for a good chunk of the movie, you didn’t see ‘it’ at all, you just had to imagine ‘it’ following the words and the body language of the characters. As soon as the alien (which of course looked rather ridiculous) was displayed, this tale unfortunately lost its edge but, still, for a 60 year old feature, it thought it was pretty solid. I also enjoyed the fact that Nick, my 15 year old step-son, thoroughly enjoyed it. So young and still able to enjoy a very old black and white flick movie without any impressive special effects. I thought it was pretty awesome. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, it is a pretty cool classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

7/10