John Carpenter’s “The Thing” Scared Quentin Tarantino
Director John Carpenter filmed 1982’s The Thing as an authentic adaptation of John W. Campbell Jr.’s 1938 novella Who Goes There? The film follows a group of researchers in Antarctica who encounter a parasitic extraterrestrial life-form that eats and conforms to other organisms. The group discovers they can’t trust each other because any of them could be the Thing.
Watch the video below as director Quentin Tarantino and Late Show host Stephen Colbert share their love for The Thing—and Tarantino explains how he is rarely scared by movies, but The Thing was an exception…
Quentin Tarantino And Stephen Bond Over Their Shared Love For "The Thing"
Quentin Tarantino is a filmmaker whose films include From Dusk till Dawn (1996), The Hateful Eight (2015), Death Proof (2007), and many more. His films are known for violence, references to popular culture, and dark humor.
“I don’t get scared in movies,” Tarantino told Colbert. “The Thing I got scared in. It made me want to put it under a microscope about why I was actually frightened during that movie. And I think the reason is because, if you know the movie, part of the situation is these men are trapped in this situation in this arctic research center. And so, one or more of them are possibly this Thing that’s going to devour all of them—and no one knows if you are the guy I’ve known forever or you are the Thing.
“The movie makes the paranoia of that so palpable, so real. It’s almost like another character in the movie, just the sheer paranoia of it.”
The Thing stars Kurt Russell and features Wilford Brimley and Keith David. The film’s 1982 release did poorly at the box office, but began to find its audience through home video and cable. It has since been acclaimed as one of the best science fiction and horror films ever made—and inspired a whole generation of filmmakers.
The Thing has spawned a variety of merchandise, including a 1982 novelization, haunted house attractions, board games, comic books, a video game, and a 2011 prequel film with the same title.
Watch the video below for the film’s trailer…
More about The Thing
'The Thing' at 40: The Cast & Crew's Definitive History of John Carpenter's Masterpiece (SYFY)
John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ and the Horrors Hidden in Plain Sight (Collider)
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