The Thing

Ah, what the Hell.  John Carpenter's The Thing is possibly the only film ever mad that can handle the ego of putting one's name in the title.  Is it good?  Yes.  Is it entertaining?  Yes.  Is it scary?  Most of the time.  But it remains in a handful of films that is more than the sum of its parts.  I know it's an adventure/paranoia/monster/horror film.  I get that.  I'm not going to read too much into it, as that could spoil the actual fun in seeing it. But like Gilda or Vertigo, also both fun films, there's an almost aggressive weirdness that makes you feel like there's some kind of metaphysics at work just under the surface.  Yes, the effects are a bit dated, though certainly scarier than any CGI has to offer.  But please consider: we never learn, ever, the alien's true form, and Mr. Carpenter's and Mr. Rob Bottin's (physical effects) imagination as to its different shape really sells this.  Though it appears, it is perpetually offscreen, and as much as one would want to write a treatise on that, this is fucking cool.