Rapid Response: The Thing From Another World

Oh, how far horror movies have come. “The Thing From Another World” may be campy and not all that scary, but it’s a movie of more wit and intelligence than John Carpenter’s remake “The Thing” in the ’80s and more entertainment value and meaning than the remake of Carpenter’s version from 2011.

Here is a movie that is actually about something. It sidesteps most of the sci-fi and horror movie cliches of the ’50s laden with not-so-subtle allegories about the Cold War and remains a genuinely exciting horror thriller about the conflict between authority and science, logic and brute strength.

But beyond that, “The Thing From Another World” is a largely talky movie that cherishes its scary bits. It’s not 30 percent character and 70 percent violence the way so many horror movies are today. Producer and unbilled director Howard Hawks devotes precious time to subtle traces of sexism from army officers and their fixation on pin-up girls, dialogue that is a little snide but also a little empty, desolate and uncertain, and suspense building set pieces more memorable than millions of dollars of CGI wizardry.

The well known story involves an army officer sent to the Arctic circle after they’ve encountered a disturbance. A doctor on base has located a UFO entering the airspace, and after some searching in a hilariously low-rent and campy way, discover the object is actually a flying saucer. They try to recover it but manage to blow it up instead (it’ll uncover it in just 30 seconds!), only to rescue an 8-foot humanoid creature lodged in the ice.

This set up is good enough to establish a slow burning tension without resorting to psychological character drama or cinematic scare tactics about what’s beyond the next corner. But there’s a scene in which “The Thing From Another World” really comes alive. The Thing has just escaped from its frozen cage and no one is fully sure what it’s capable of just yet. They trace it to a greenhouse, only to find a dead huskie dog tumble out of a cabinet.

Director Christian Nyby keeps his distance and shows us the whole scope of the moment in one wide shot. He follows through on that visual economy in terrific attack scenes that make use of lighting, not as much effects, to bring the terror. Watch the light vanish from the frame and leap in balls of fire as The Thing stands silhouetted in a doorway and steps into an ambush.

I can’t say I loved “The Thing From Another World.” But it’s an above-average B-movie with a story iconic and clever enough that it deserved two remakes.