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Some Thoughts on Rewatching it:
I love this movie. it is by far my favorite Kurt Russel movie. (I know, most people prefer Escape From New York, but that doesn't resonate with me the way The Thing does. There are images in this movie that have stuck with me since I first saw it in childhood. (The heart attack scene in particular stuck with me over the decades). Much as I love it, I haven't watched it in a long time. It is one of hundreds of things tied inextricably with my relationship with Abe. Watching it, I get a strong sense memory of curling up on Abe's mother's sofa on a Winter night, blankets piled against the cold and munching discount day old cub Food donuts. What can I say, we had a shared taste for horror movies and ambiguity. It was a good movie to watch in the cold in the dark of the year; a good movie to debate. In the end, we both came to the darkest of conclusions about the end, our separate logic taking us to the same point. I mention this, as it means I have no real claim to objectivity here.

In my opinion, it holds up shockingly well after all this time. How many horror movies of the early 80s can one really say that of? This was made pre-CGI and the solidity of the effects is actually part of why it works, the visceral response one has to the biological realities helps the acting, I think. Certainly, the acting is shockingly good for what was at heart a B-Movie. I love the rising paranoia, the necessity for thought, the claustrophobic feel of all that white.

I love the ambiguous ending, which I much prefer to the original Campbell gung ho, humanity uber allas approach. I love that every scene of the movie, every performance shows how hard Carpenter and the cast thought about their characters and the implications. The back stories may be unspoken, but you can feel the work put into them. (The commentary track backs me up on this. McReady was meant to be a Vietnam vet, who couldn't readjust and went as far away from society as he could get and it still wasn't far enough. There he is in his shack, borderline alcoholic. Apparently they all had a reason to be in Antarctica like that. Similarly, they spent a lot of time off camera debating implications. This pleases me to no end). I love the facial expressions. I love that McCready is not some perfect fair haired hero like Kirk Douglas, unfailingly heroic.