How this classic movie adaptation attempted to build a sequel to John carpenter’s landmark horror experience
In 1982, horror master John Carpenter, best known for films like Halloween, They Live, Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from New York, released The Thing to a mostly negative critical reaction. Seeing it as little more than a cheap vehicle to showcase blood, guts and gore, it wasn’t until after its initial release and into the Nineties that it started to gain traction and acclaim. Now seen as one of the – if not the greatest – horror films ever made, it’s considered a classic that has found both its audience and well-deserved praise. Based on John W Campbell Jr’s 1938 novella Who Goes There?, The Thing spawned a novelisation, a comic adaptation, a board game and a prequel film in 2011. However, one overlooked entry into the franchise is the 2002 videogame, simply named The Thing. Treading the line between familiarity and giving the franchise new and interesting possibilities, it did what most offshoots of the franchise were afraid to do with the acclaimed series: continue it.
For the uninitiated in the horror masterwork, the film of The Thing follows a research team in Antarctica that becomes the prey of an alien creature, one that can perfectly replicate whatever organism it comes into contact with. Never seen in its original form, the alien begins to take the guise of various members of the research team. Alone and isolated in the depths of nowhere, the film plays into the paranoia and mistrust that begins to brew amid the researchers, all the while the alien picks them off one by one.
The game picks up shortly after the climatic events of the film. Planned to be a direct sequel from the outset and inspired by James Cameron’s Aliens, it focuses on a team of US Special Forces that are sent to investigate what occurred at Outpost 31, the setting of Carpenter’s original film. The player takes the role of Captain JF Blake. It doesn’t take long before communications are down and the alien begins replicating Blake’s team, ultimately leading to a title that offers up action, a tense atmosphere and a team-management system that will have the player second guessing the very people who fight alongside them.
Long before working on The Thing, most of the team at Computer Artworks were massive fans of the original film. As Diarmid Campbell, lead programmer on the project explains, “I probably first saw it when I was about 12 – it was on TV, and it scared the shit out of me! Everyone was talking about it at school. Though I didn’t really appreciate its brilliance until I started working on the game, and so watched the film again as an adult. The setting is open and desolate, but no one can escape. Everyone becomes totally paranoid, and everyone deals with it in their own way. Add to that the slowly picking off of each character one by one, and you get this countdown fe
