Film · 1982
The Thing
An Antarctic research team faces an alien that can imitate living things, leaving everyone unsure whom to trust.
The set-up is cruelly simple: a research team in Antarctica encounters an alien life form that can absorb other organisms and take their appearance. Once that possibility is in the room, every conversation comes with a second question. Who, exactly, is speaking? I can cope with a locked door. I find a familiar face becoming a reason to worry considerably less polite.
The fear here is both bodily and social. It is the idea of losing your shape, and the equally unpleasant business of having to doubt the people beside you. The isolation gives that suspicion room to grow. If you like your horror tense, grim and inclined to make you study everyone’s expression, this is your sort of film. If body horror is a hard limit for you, choose your film night accordingly.
This belongs to a dark, quiet night, with company who can manage a whole film without talking over it. Tea is welcome. A running commentary is grounds for removal from the sofa. For me, the sharpest part of the premise is how quickly survival becomes a question of trust. An alien threat is frightening enough; having to wonder whether the person beside you is still themselves is the bit that gets under my skin.
If you like this, try
28 Years Later
A boy who has never known anything else must get his ill mother to help, decades after Britain's outbreak began.
A Quiet Place
A family must live in near total silence to survive creatures that hunt by sound alone.
Alien
A commercial crew answers a distress call and finds they are not alone on their own ship.
Alien: Covenant
The crew of a colony ship find a planet that isn't on any of their charts, and a discovery no one expected.