John Carpenter’s The Thing received terrible reviews when it was released in 1982.
Critics were wrong about this frozen horror masterpiece.
a story Carpenter had long prized.
It qualifies only as instant junk.
Even reviewers outside the mainstream were hostile towardsThe Thing.
The magazineCinefantastiqueran a cover which asked, Is this the most hated movie of all time?
In science fiction magazineStarlog, critic Alan Spencer wrote, John CarpentersThe Thingsmells, and smells pretty bad.
Heres some things hed be better suited to direct: traffic accidents, train wrecks and public floggings.
Carpenter was left reeling from the critical reaction.
I was pretty stunned by it, he later said.
Steven Spielbergs family blockbusterE.T.
They became almost a movie in themselves, and were a little too horrifying.
Disneys hugely expensive sci-fi adventureTroncame out a little over a month later, on the 9th July.
Perhaps ironically, one of the outlets Carpenter first opened up to wasStarlog.
I was called a pornographer of violence, Carpenter said in 1985.
It was on video and later television that the perception ofThe Thingbegan to change.
But editor Todd Ramsay coaxed him on, encouraging to remain true to his own bleak vision.
You have to embrace the darkness, Ramsay told Carpenter.
Thats where this movie is.
Amazingly, Ill bet that thousands, if not millions, of moviegoers are interested in seeing just that.
Its just taken them a little while to realize that fact.
