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Watch: First New TV Spot for Universal's 'The Thing' Prequel Revealed

by Alex Billington
September 15, 2011
Source: TheMovieBox

The Thing Will Become You! Universal has unveiled the first official TV spot for their upcoming prequel The Thing, directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. Starring Joel Edgerton and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, as well as a small group of others including Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, this looks very much like the prequel but with its own spin on it. While I know some are critical of the CGI effects, I'm loving those little teases we get in this, at least with the hand and that guy's face, this looks creepy and awesome, yet not too much of a repeat of John Carpenter's classic. Check out this first TV spot to follow-up the trailer from July.

Watch the first TV spot for Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s The Thing, originally via TheMovieBox:

The Thing is directed by Dutch filmmaker Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. It's set at another Antarctica research site that's invaded by an "alien life form" (the same one from John Carpenter's 1978 film, as this is a direct prequel). The discovery of an alien craft brings in graduate student Kate Lloyd (Winstead) who partners with Sam Carter (Edgerton), a helicopter pilot, to hunt down this alien. "[They've made a film] that takes place in the same reality as Carpenter's: a place where the people on screen are real and the way they react to an alien entity is the same way you'd react if you were there in their situation." In theaters Oct. 14.

Explore tags: Hype, Opinions, To Watch, TV Spots

Xerxexx

I'm really interested in what this film might bring to the table.

Anonymous

i'm interested too.......i just hope it doens't give me the "been there -done that" feeling.

Xerxexx

That is always the fear with these kind of films.

http://twitter.com/rltuva Robert L. Tuva

It looks like the original with a wee more gloss to me.
grimjob

I'm excited for this, as I am a HUGE John Carpenter fan, and this is just adding to his classic. I am incredibly relieved they decided to make a seperate film and not just remake Carpenter's.
Guest

Meh.
Tester

Same here, huge fan of both other movies ( especially 82 ) and really looking forward to seeing what they have done. As usual, chances are they will f'k it up, but I am hopeful. Scopedog ?

Anonymous

Right here, Tester. It's okay to have some doubts, but...let's wait for a while...see what happens...8-) Again, it's a TV spot, but thankfully, 1) it's an R-rated film, and 2) the filmmakers are bending over backwards (so it seems) to make this thing match up to Carpenter's 1982 film, now considered a classic, and deservedly so. If you can find it, check out the new issue of HORRORHOUND magazine--they've got a great retrospective on both films (1951 and 1982), and also the 2011 prequel.

Tester

Kool, I'll have to look that up. thx

Anonymous

I am excited for this despite it will probably be the same thing as the John Carpenter version. But really when you think about it what could they really do different?
Bot

a shot for shot remake of John Carpenter's version of the Thing would be better than this shit.

Anonymous

But how do you know it's shit? You've seen it already? And for the record....the majority of critics thought Carpenter's film was shit. Of course, they were wrong.

Bot

the trailer alone paints a good enough picture of what to expect -- shit.

Anonymous

Yeah? Well, most trailers do that--and yet the film turns out to be damned good (THE IRON GIANT, f'r instance). But until you see the bloody film, you do not know whether it'll be shit or not. Just sayin'...

Xerxexx

Iron Giant was awesome!

booger

its already been done...nothing new here 'cept the female...

Anonymous

Well like I said, how do you make it any different? The Carpenter version is about the virus killing the American team, this just the first team being killed the virus thing. The only thing new will be the hopefully awesome deaths.

Anonymous

Yeah, and new variations of the Thing. Either way, I'm seeing it. That's the only way to be sure.

Tester

Nuff said

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9emWB_rrMt0 Crapola

I'm excited for this, why not? It's a new story in a retro style. I hope the effects are not so clean, the original film looked so scary because of the effects I think, they were pretty raw.
McWilly

Yep exited; new print on a old fave. Either way it goes I'll watch!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1363064612 Said Samayoa

i just hope this movie brings the same suspense as the old one the whole "who should you trust" cause in JC's The Thing, you didnt know who was infected until they turned
tommyturner

No MacReady, no movie.

Anonymous

Huh...well, no McReady in the 1951 version either....although Mac was in the original short story "Who Goes There". And besides....the movie's been made anyway.

Gex

Looks like it has too many unnecessary jump-scares (a thing all too common in today's horror movies), and cgi, such as with the thing breaking out of the ice. At least in the original it had to take its time thawing itself out.

Anonymous

Uh....well, it didn't thaw itself out--it was the dog that "thinged out" first. Just sayin'...

Dimensional

The fact the The Thing explodes out of the ice, fits well with JC`s film. If you watch that movie, you can tell that it didnt thaw out because the ice block is still intact, and not partially molten. I too am glad that theyve made a prequel as opposed to a remake. Looking forward to watching this.
Dimensional

The Carpenter movie made it seem as though the thing had been dug out of the ice, but if you really think about it, there`s no way a team of scientists in any field would attempt to dig a specimen out of an ice block. Its just not practical, as it would damage the specimen in the process, and how the hell would you dig under the specimen anyway, as you would need to do, in order to free it? No, you would thaw the block out and melt it completely in order to get at the specimen. You just could`nt dig under it! You could try digging around it, despite the fact this would destroy the sides of the block, which would mean that the rectangular shape of the block would be destroyed, and the end result would appear nothing like the nice cleanly shaped block in Carpenters movie. This is one of the holes in the realism of Carpenters movie, and I think the makers of the prequel, managed to get around this inconsistency well, by having the creature explode, upward and outward, presumably due to some thawing, and the fact that one of the guys drilled a hole in the top of the block. Carpenters movie has a number of holes in the logic, and the ice block is one of them. There are others, however most are hidden well, and wont reveal themselves unless you really think about certain things. The makers of a prequel or sequel would have to take care not to inadvertently highlight these flaws while trying to deal with them in the context of narrative and I think its a good idea to have the creature escape in the fashion we are shown in the clip from the movie, as it would have been a mistake to show scientists digging their way to the specimen inside the block. Either way, the film seems to be suffering a huge backlash, with no real justification behind any of the arguments so far. Carpenters movie has flaws, one or two of which are huge. However, it gets away with a lot, given how well the film works as a whole. Who`s to say this prequel will be any different, until the film is actually released?