"The Thing" - Prequel to "The Thing"

'The Thing' movie poster

"The Thing" - (2011), Rated R, 103 min - Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi - October 14, 2011 in theaters (USA), DVD Release Date: January 31, 2012.


Couldn't they have added some additional clarification to the title "The Thing" - something as simple as the words: "The Beginning" or "Prequel" or "Prelude" or "How It Began"?? I wasn't aware that's what this 2011 movie happened to be. I thought it was a remake of the original from 1982. Maybe I wasn't paying attention to the previews as close as I should have. Hmmm...see my Trivia further down for a note about this.

Details:

Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) users voted and gave "The Thing" a  6.3 out of a 10 score with 31,228 votes.

Super brief synopsis:
At an Antarctica research site, the discovery of an alien craft leads to a confrontation between graduate student Kate Lloyd and scientist Dr. Sander Halvorson.

Here's an editorial review from Amazon: It's not human. Yet. From the producers of "Dawn of the Dead" comes the chilling prelude to John Carpenter's cult classic film. When paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) travels to an isolated outpost in Antarctica for the expedition of a lifetime, she joins an international team that unearths a remarkable discovery. Their elation quickly turns to fear as they realize that their experiment has freed a mysterious being from its frozen prison. Paranoia spreads like an epidemic as a creature that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish in this spine-tingling thriller.

Stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton and Ulrich Thomsen.

Official Movie Trailer: The Thing (2011)

Official Movie Site: The Thing (2011)

TRIVIA:

>>The producers convinced Universal Studios to allow them to create a prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing (that's the link to the 1982 movie!!) instead of a remake, as they felt Carpenter's film was already perfect, so making a remake would be like "painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa". However, the prequel still has the title of the original film, because they couldn't think of a subtitle (for example, "The Thing: Begins") that sounded good.

>>When we first meet Kate Lloyd she is studying something that looks stunningly similar to the 1982 dog monster.

>>An enormous amount of screen shots from the first movie were kept on the set while filming at all times, in order to ensure that the Norwegian station would be rebuilt to the smallest details.