John Carpenter's 'The Thing' Has Been Hiding A Secret In Plain Sight This Whole Time
John Carpenter's remake of The Thing is one of the best sci-fi horror films ever made. It has a simple story, an isolated setting, incredible, grotesque practical effects and endless suspense. It's been watched and rewatched countless times since it hit theaters in 1982, however, there may be one secret of the film that you've never noticed before, and it involves the shape-shifting identity of the mysterious monster at the center of the story.
The suspense and tension in The Thing comes from the fact that the titular monster can imitate anyone it comes into contact with almost flawlessly, allowing it to lure in more victims. But if you look into the eyes of any of the characters, you can determine whether or not they are truly human. Find out this interesting tidbit about The Thing monster after the jump.
If you're wondering why this is coming up now instead of 34 years ago, cinematographer Dean Cundey has been making the publicity rounds to promote a new 2K Blu-ray release of the movie coming from Scream Factory next month. On that release will be a new commentary with the director of photography moderated by Blumhouse blog writer Rob Galuzzo, who just revealed this new detail about the movie that doesn't appear to be widely known.
During the commentary, Galuzzo asked if there were any subtle cues in the cinematography that revealed anything about The Thing to the audience. Cundey explained that he and Carpenter wanted to figure out some kind of way to hint which of the characters were still human. He says, "You'll notice there's always an eye light, we call it, a little gleam in the eye of the actor. It gives life."
Now watch the end of the movie and see if you can determine whether the last men standing are both human:
The Thing gets the new Blu-ray on October 11th.