THE THING is returning, with the aid of John Carpenter
By Bob Thomas
Hollywood-who knows what evil lurks behind the doors of Stage 29 at Universal Studios? John Carpenter knows, but he isn't telling.
Stage 29 is barred to visitors, though I did peek inside and saw nothing alarming. Maybe that's because THE THING company was on the lunch break. When director Carpenter returned, he sat down at a nearby coffee stand and talked about is longtime obsession with the macabre.
THE THING was the first movie that made me jump out of my seat-literally," said the slender 33-year-old filmmaker.
"I saw it when I was 6 years old in Bowling Green, Ky. I saw it again when I was studying film at USC, several times, in fact. There's a lot of Howard Hawks in it, and Hawks is my favorite director.
Hawks didn't direct the 1951 THE THING (subtitled THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD). Christian Nyby did. Hawks produced the film, among the first of the outer-space monster movies and notable for the appearance of James Arness in the title role.
Carpenter recalls that he wasn't traumatized by his youthful exposure to THE THING.
Instead, his reaction was: "Boy, that's neat! How can I do that?"
He found out at film school and applied his learning to a non-union quickie, HALLOWEEN said to be the most successful independent movie. Filmed for $300,000, it has collected $60 million at the world's theaters.
HALLOWEEN II on which Carpenter was co-writer and executive producer, is among this fall's big box-office winners.
"It's not making as much money as the first one," admitted Carpenter. "that's because the market has become deluged with these kinds of films."
HALLOWEEN was a compilation of all the things I learned about horror films." What he learned is that the unexpected is everything. "The audience knows it is going to be scared, but it doesn't know when it is going to be scared; the trick is to scare them when they least expect it."
THE THING will do just that. It has the capacity to invade animals and human beings and convert them into rampaging monsters. The story takes place in 1982 at a scientific base in Antarctica. The here is Kurt Russell, who worked for Carpenter in ELVIS and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.
"We shot last summer on a glacier above Juneau, Alaska, second-unit work on chase scenes with a small crew," said Carpenter.
"After we finish the studio work, the whole crew will go to Stewart, B.C., which is called the 'snow capital of the world.' We just have two week's work, but we may encounter the 'white-out' the condition when you can't film because the horizon isn't visible."
No wonder THE THING is costing $13 million.
Will Carpenter continue in horror genre? "Actually I'd rather make Westerns; they were always my favorite kind of picture. Unfortunately, they aren't selling right now.
