The Thing - Extra Credit

Carpentar’s 1982 film, The Thing, has certain humorous aspects that make the character’s and the story line appear more “human” like as well as the aspects of paranoia and turning against the ones’ closest to you. Make light of a dreadful situation is just one of the many ways that human beings cope with the overwhelming stress of dangerous experiences. For instance, my mother forgot to put her car in park after she pulled into the garage and after she got out of the car, it began to roll down the driveway and into the street. As I attempted to stop the car, almost having it roll over my foot in the process, all my mother could do was laugh. Humans have ways to avert their feelings from the situations at hand.         

            The Thing is an amazing imitator and because of this, the crew in Antarctica is easily persuaded to suspect every other human in their midst. This raises the tension and furthers pushes the storyline. The way that Carpentar directs the filming of these scenes is what really allows the audience to feel the tension between these characters. The multiple times and long pauses on certain characters faces build the suspense. Those shots as well as multiple scenes where characters are going crazy, have weapons, or even hurt the others they are with, increases the audience’s perception of the anxiety the characters are feeling.

            Carpentar doesn’t let this film create an absurd amount of tension without releasing it at some point throughout the story. The most suspenseful scene in The Thing is when Mac is finally doing the heat test on his crewmates’ blood to see who is infected. After one of the men is tested positive for the infection, the man left sitting on the couch after that is one of the only one’s left to test. Once his blood is cleared, he sarcastically begins to comfort Mac and then begins to scream for Mac to untie him from the couch. The way Mac was screamed at is the part of the scene that relieves all of the anxiety from the blood test. The audience is left to laugh about it because of the sarcasm felt in the man’s voice. The tension causes the outburst from the man but the audience is able to laugh in the middle of this apocalyptic world.

            In most of the horror films we’ve watched throughout the semester, humor has not always been used to alleviate the apprehension felt by the characters in specific storylines. The Thing and Dawn of the Dead are the exceptions to that and allow the audience to not feel as frightened. The humor breaks are good for the human psyche and allow a film to be more enjoyable for the audience.