Midnight Movie The Thing

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Fri 26 November 2004 // 00:00

MIDNIGHT MOVIE - THE THING
(Carpenter / 1982 / USA / 109 mins / 35mm / cert 18)
(Fri 26th / 12 midnight / £4/3)

John Carpenter's seminal 1982 horror flick certainly lives up to the promise of its original tagline: The Ultimate in Alien Terror! Skilfully updating Howard Hawks' 1951 classic of cold-war paranoia,the film eschews the genre cliches of shock and awe in favour of a more controlled build-up of tension, punctuated by eye-popping special effects.

Considered a failure on release and going head-to-head with the far friendlier ET was always going to pose a challenge and the film now ranks not just as a classic of the genre, but also as one of the outstanding achievements of 80s mainstream cinema. Finding its natural home as a Cube midnight movie, you would be advised not to come alone! Look out for more midnight fixtures coming soon...