When The Ending Leaves You Terrified - One Last Scene
Vložit
- čas přidán 21. 12. 2023
- Here's why The Thing has the most chilling end in horror. Get a whole month of great cinema free: mubi.com/thecloserlook
Why does The Thing have such a chilling ending? In this video essay, I explore how Carpenter builds a palpable paranoia, one so strong, we still feel it as the credits roll.
The One Last Scene playlist: • One Last Scene
I----------------------------------------------------------------------------------I
My Discord Server: / discord
Support me on Patreon: / henryboseley
Hate me on Twitter: / henryboseley
I----------------------------------------------------------------------------------I
A massive thank you to my $10+ patrons:
Henrik Haugberg
Miguel Lily
Kyong Kim
Cameron Benson
Mike Schmidt
[OG]
Chefda
Peter Shukoff
I----------------------------------------------------------------------------------I
Written, narrated & produced by Henry Boseley
Edited by Brandon Reardin
Music provided by@Vindsvept
Ya know, me and my siblings watched The Thing for the first time on Halloween and the paranoia was so intense, we were guessing which guy was a Thing for the entire runtime, especially for the ending. Absolutely amazing movie.
I swear horror is always more fun to watch with other people.
Tell me about it, man! Knowing about the blood test scene and the defibrillator scene in advance made all of us panicking and screaming at top volume at 9:30 pm very rewarding.@@TheCloserLook
To be that pedant, it ought to be "my siblings and I".
To figure if it should be "me" or "I", remove the other party and see which would have the sentence work. "Ya know, me watched The Thing" ain't right, whereas "Ya know, I watched The Thing" ...
@@TheCloserLook I hope you make a analysis vide on The 4 Species Movies, especially the first one.
@@ChrispyNutyou will start to make friends as soon as you stop doing this one thing. It is an unattractive quality
My friend saw The Thing as a young kid and was terrified of the family dog afterwards. Despite that experience with it, it's now his favorite horror movie as an adult. Horror is fascinating
i think my first horror that i acutally remember is nighmare on elms street the last part where they bring freddie to real world and blow him up , that movie was freaking hilarious to me as a kid ahhaah, i mean i was always scared of stuff, but i don't think it was ever a movie themed scaredness
Same thing happened to my sisters when our father showed us this movie when we were kids. They were excited by the Husky and then terrified of the dogs ever since... To this day they hate it when I mimic the Thing's bone crunching sound effects and groans. Especially when I throw my voice at my dog as the stand in for the Thing.
Fun fact: The 2002 “The Thing” video game is a sequel to the film and is endorsed and considered canon by Carpenter himself. It is revealed that they were both survivors and that Childs died of hypothermia. MacReady saves the player character in a helicopter at the end.
Or McReady killed Childs. Is it by his account or does it has the cut scene?
That was actually a pretty alright game. Fond memories of it.
I played actually and by that time the game released it was a good one even if it was not that popular. It told a good story and had a lot of Things in it. I am sad no one wanted to make a sequel to it nor a remake to shine in modern environment. A deadspace like remake for that game would be fitting and modern audience could enjoy it aswell.
My opinion is Childs were not infected simply because he had his ear ring in his ear which is not organic material and the Thing is not capable to copy that. It's only my idea if the prequel movie considered canon then it can explain the scene why Childs not the thing. At least it gives the audience an impression and options to thinkering.
@@sziklamester1244Doesn’t work considering the Thing by the end of that movie has already adapted to that weakness.
@@sziklamester1244 They did try making a sequel but it got cancelled.
Nailed it right on the head. True horror comes from uncertainty. If you dont know if youll/someone will survive, it becomes a lot more terrifying
His past quote "Fear of the unknown" pretty much sums up what makes a great horror.
For Inception, the ending has been confirmed, for the most part, as being reality. Sir Michael Caine stated in an interview how he was confused by the scriot and Nolan explained to him that every scene that he(Caine) is in is reality. Caine's character was definitely there at the end hence it's reality and not a dream.
I always thought that the spinning top wobbles a bit at the end. It must be reality.
See also the Cobb Ring Token theory.
Not really, what Nolan gave is direction to an actor. Nolan pretty clearly left the ending ambiguous, it's not like he ran out of time to make an ending, he intentionally left Cobb's state a question. The whole point is that his character arc is complete, he's happy that he's back with his family and doesn't care if he's in a dream anymore
I feel like trying to answer that question is pointless, at this point the character realizes it doesn’t matter so we shouldn’t care either
•For horror, threatening the lives of your characters isn't enough, you need to instill a pervading sense of uncertainty, an atmosphere that keeps the viewer at the edge of their seat all the way through
•You can create uncertainty by having the protagonist not be able to rely on things
•To create paranoia, you can't confirm anything for example giving a slam-dunk clue that something is/isn't the case
•The feeling of isolation is something a lot of great horrors have
OG Predator nails these points
> You don't know when the Predator will strike; I'm typing this up and then the closer look brings it up
and they do a good job of explaining why as a Horror movie the Thing blows away Predator.
This is SO interesting to me because I've always had an entirely different interpretation of that scene, and never really thought about it as a big mystery as to whether either of them are the Thing or not.
For me I've always loved the ending because it's that uncertainty that puts the proverbial nail in both of their coffins -- if ONLY Macready survived, he'd know himself he was still Macready, and he could seek rescue. If ONLY Childs survived, he would know himself and could seek rescue too. But because they both survived, they both have to stay there to die. They CAN'T trust the other person, and they in turn know that the other person can't trust them. It doesn't MATTER if one of them is actually the Thing, because as soon as they both realised they weren't alone they've both already decided the other person Cannot Leave.
They've butted heads the entire film, but now they both understand what needs to happen. I love the air of miserable solidarity in this scene. I see that sharing of the drink as the ultimate "what the hell does it matter anymore?" Neither of them are getting out of there, they've doomed each other by surviving, might as well have a damn drink.
The horror (and tragedy!) of the ending for me is imagining that neither of them are the Thing at all, but there's no scenario in which they can trust the other enough to seek rescue together. So instead they both just die, for nothing, /just in case/. That, to me, is worse than if one of them WAS the Thing, because then their deaths wouldn't be completely futile.
Such a good damn film to allow for so many interpretations of the same scene!!!
God bless you. Never thought of this but it's perfect too. Every theory has one of them be The Thing.
This has always been my take too! They both just have to sit there all night laughing and talking until one of them trips up and reveals it’s self or they both die.
I think you missed a big point in the ending... there is no rescue to be seeked.
blair destroyed the vehicles and communication.
the thing destroyed the heating and/or generator.
they have no choice but to freeze to death.
the thing can afford to be frozen and wait until the next humans appears after a couple months or probably more since they are in the middle of a storm.
trying to take the thing out before they died was a last ditch effort.
@@alicepbg2042 it's not really about that though. It's about how they both then have no choice but to sit down and die together instead of even going back to begin looking for rescue. It's about how they both seal each others' fates far more firmly than their attempts to destroy all rescue ever did.
And on a more meta level, it's a movie. If one of the last surviving action heroes wanted to look for one last chance of rescue despite all odds, they would've found it. Childs appearing to Macready means to both him AND the genre-savvy audience that they're now both doomed.
@@wings9177 there is no rescue to look for.
and they both know it. any effort would be useless. it's why they give up. if hope existed, they would still cling to it.
the movie could break every stabilished rule and give them an out. but that would suck.
their fates were sealed far before they met at the end.
After the monster is down, thinking that the only other person in the room with you might be not who he says he is makes every part of the ending uncertain and uncomfortable. Exactly how it should be.
@@moon-moth1 Like you're thinking. "Wait a minute... What if I'm the monster?!" That would be even worse!
@claytonrios1 Exactly my thought. Even if your not violently assimilated you could have injested a Thing cell, when would you realise your not human anymore? Maybe you wouldn't feel any different until your threatened and your body just erupts into horific mutation against your will. I've seen a video that makes a great argument that Mcready is a thing.
What I love about The Thing is the insane amount of clues sprinkeled throughout the movie. You can make a fairly accurate timeline of infection, that in turn makes solving the mysteries way easier.
Who destroyed the blood bank?
Well the keys were dropped in the storage room by windows after Bennings was infected. Who ever was infected at the time picked them up and got to the blood during the commotion.
You missed a very big clue that ties into the ending. In the shot were Childs is guarding the door you can see a dark blue jacket right behind him hanging on the wall. Right before they blow up the base, they show a montage of all the rooms and the entrance that Childs is guarding. The door is wide open, but more importantly the jacket on the wall is gone. The blake thing must have gotten to Childs, then took the nearby jacket so that it could try to hibernate in the snow until outside help came. After the explosion, it decided to check its surroundings to see if there was any survivors. The missing jacket could be a mistake, but I'd like to believe it was intentional.
No, sorry, it is only a continuity error, not a deliberate clue.
I can prove it: watch the scene where the three survivors head down the stairs to the generator room.
If you look over their shoulder you can see into that cloak room and... that blue coat is still there on the hook.
You have to be quick, but it is definitely there, which would be impossible if your theory is correct.
The tracking shot you refer to was filmed later - maybe even as a pick up in post - and the continuity team didn't dress the sets properly.
That's all. Nothing more. No less.
Why would it need a jacket to survive in the snow? It was in a literal block of ice for thousands of years before the Nords found it
Another thing is the last drink McCready and Childs take, what Childs and McCready drink is Gazolina, components of Molotov cocktails, and Childs drank it without spitting it out 🤔😳
@@sawtooth808 Untrue. MacReady took two Molotov Cocktails down into the generator room, and when the Blair-monster made its entrance it took both the detonator AND those two bottles.
That's why MacReady had to throw the dynamite - it was all he had left.
But that dynamite exploded the entire main building.
So MacReady not only was out of Molotov Cocktails, the burning down of the main building meant he no longer had access to any more gasoline to make any more.
But his hut was still intact, so he could trundle over there and grab a bottle of whisky and a blanket.
Apparently he did, because that's what he had on him when Childs appeared out of the dark.
@@tipsyXtwo True enough. If Childs was a Thing then he went out in the snow to freeze until a rescue party came and thawed him out.
But why do that and THEN return to have a chat with MacReady?
From a movie PoV that makes no sense.
At the end of the day, whether one, both, or neither of them were infected, it almost doesn’t matter, as they have no chance in hell of surviving. Neither a human nor a human-shaped Thing has the kind of resistance to cold required to survive the night, much less make it back to civilization. The war between the humans and the Things has resulted in mutually assured destruction, just like the Cold War that inspired the paranoiac themes of the film.
No man, the thing can survive in ice as it did for thousands of years. Remember it's not human, it's everything it has copied in a human form. I think Childs is human because if he was a thing it didn't needed to aproach McReady to acomplish it's plan.
a@@fran3ro My opinion on this he have his ear ring in his ear which is not organic material so the thing could not copy that. Sure they could take cloths and wear but they cannot replicate non organic materials. I consider the prequel also canon and in that movie the thing cannot copy metals. Also the video game more or less confirming this idea.
@@sziklamester1244 The problem is you can't retroactively aply new lore from a new movie to an older one. Unless the movies are planed at the same time to continue one another, the first or older movies should stay on their own, and be analyzed on their own. Is like the shit of the DNA harvest from "The Predator", that shit isn't canon in the first movie with Arnold.
Besides that. The thing easily can take the earings and put them on.
@@fran3ro That also true and I am agreeing with. If we does not count the prequel then we can only see as a sequel the video game adaptation.
Same thing like AvsP is not a canon neither for Aliens nor Predator but exists in between the two. Comics and books are either canon or neither or several of them considered as canon.
There are many ways to see this and I personally like the imagination and when not all the things is told to you. It gives more mystery to the object.
@@fran3ro if you don't consider the sequel canon you're still presented with the problem of why would a Childes-thing remain in human form and approach a lone unarmed human, bringing a flamethrower into the equation themselves no-less
I personally think that neither of them are infected, and the ending is just meant to scare you and keep you guessing, but there is definitely room for doubt.
Agreed. To me the most telling point is that Childs asks if MacReady is the only one left, and receives affirmation.
Then..... sits down and talk about what a whacky day they've had.
Well, yeah, CHILDS would do that, but a Childs-THING wouldn't.
It would do what a Thing always does when it finds a human on their own: it would drop its disguise and assimilate them.
Childs doesn't do that, ergo, he is not a Thing
This scene always comes to my mind every once in a while, I was just talking about it with a friend a couple of days ago.
One of the best movies ever made.
Summer of '84 had an amazing ending, I will say. It left me feeling quite unsettled and was perfectly ended.
The Thing is a brilliant movie, it’s my favorite horror movie of all time and is definitely in my top 5 movies of all time
John Carpenter is great at doing this endings: The Thing, Halloween, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape From New York, etc. Halloween is my personal favorite example, as, removed from the context of the series, it creates such a haunting mythos about “the Shape;” is he a psychotic killer? An emotionless child? Or is he just an unholy force, like Dr. Loomus says
Fallen (1998) is one that comes to mind for "who can you trust", though the ending didn't do much to leave us guessing.
I'm not much of a horror fan. My feelings towards the genre usually range from indifferent to dislike. But The Thing is different. It's just so well done, so good. I saw it in the mid-90s when I was like 14, and I immediately liked it. When it was over, I just found myself thinking, "Sh**. That was really good." There are a handful of other horror flicks I like, but The Thing is right up there.
This and the ending of The Mist really had me in awe.
Amazing movie, ages like fine wine.
I didn't watch The Thing in the theaters but I saw it on videotape in the early 80s after a workmate recommended it. I couldn't believe how good it was, even though it was virtually unknown at the time!
This film has haunted me for years 😅. Watched a replay in Edinburgh about 10 years ago. The entire cinema was packed with fans, one of the best cinema experiences ever.
I've been going through a lot lately and was not expecting to feel better from watching a video essay on a horror. Thank you for the amazing work that you do and for having a comforting voice on top of that.
I still remember watching The Thing for the first time. I was just a kid, spending a night alone in my house as my father works on trips accross the country and usually spends a week in a different city, and my mom worked at two jobs so she usually came home very late, close to midnight. It so happened that i couldn't sleep that night and i turned on the TV. Checked the program and the only movie that was just about to start was The Thing.
It was also probably the first horror movie i ever watched as my parents didn't let me watch horrors before that, and i sunk in instantly. It was also played on a channel that no longer exists, and it never interrupted movies with advertisements blocks, so from the first minute to the very last scene, i layed in my bed just absorbing the movie, wrapped around with my duvet in a little burrito shape with only my eyes showing through a slit, and it traumatized me. My mom came back just as the credits started to roll. To this day this is my favourite horror of all time, it sprouted my fascination with horror movies and i doubt anything will ever top that. I later came back to it multiple times, and every time it's just as good as the first time i saw it. The fist horror i ever watched also happens to be the best horror i ever watched.
By the way i was like... 12 y.o. or something around that.
Love watching your videos. Show how good writing doesnt just "happen" but takes creativity, practice and skill
I love that you're uploading more often! Keep up the amazing content ❤
YES!! So well explained! I've seen others try and pull from the original sources and quotes, but this is perfect!
I'm 49 about to be 50 and my mom and dad watch this and took me to watch it as a child and it made it so bad into my brain that I can't be around those types of dogs in real life even now. They freaked me out because of this movie I absolutely love the movie, lol, don't get me wrong, but it terrified me as a child. But it probably wasn't meant for young children to watch this movie LOL
I always love watching videos on The Thing, thanks for your take! Happy holidays as well!
The ending of this film is so perfectly and masterfully done, because it gives so many hints and ominous thoughts but never really explains anything. It leaves us guessing.
One theory is that they are both true survivors. Child's finds Macready and confirms that he is the only other survivor left and that the Thing is dead. He then gives his alibi for why he was gone, which Macready seemingly accepts. Then Childs asks how they'll survive, even when it's pretty obvious that they won't, which is odd but whatever. And Macready's answer makes sense..."Maybe we shouldn't" He's realized that even a single cell of the Thing could prove disastrous to the outside world and wants to make sure that there is no way it ever comes into contact with anyone. But at the same time, them freezing to death would only be the Thing's goal if its still alive. And then Child asks if Macready is worried about him being the Thing and Macready then states that neither of them could stop the other if he was the Thing and then they both just come to terms with this and hang out together as they enjoy their last hours alive.
At least that's one way of looking at it...
Childs' lines always seemed pretty sus in this passage and it'd be all but too easy for him to be the thing. Childs beginning line is so terrifying, the way he phrases it is so intentionally suspicious and his alibi for why he was gone sounds so ridiculous on the surface, though it sort of does make sense when you think about it. More than once he makes an odd comment, for instance when he asks how they'll survive even when Childs should know by now that they won't. And when He asks if Macready is worried that he could be the Thing, because Macready thinks it might be best if they die, makes no sense. Why would Macready want them to freeze if he thinks Childs is the thing??? That'd let it survive and get away and be playing right into its hand! All these odd moments when Childs asks what Macready is gonna do, if Macready thinks he's the thing, etc makes sense if Childs is the Thing and trying to figure out what to do next, if he should kill Macready, how to kill him, if Macready is any threat still, what Macready thinks of Childs, etc. And then the fact that he drinks the bottle is the just the icing on the cake. The worst part is the knowledge that Macready would OBVIOUSLY lose the fight. Childs has a flame thrower and as the Thing would surely win.
But that's not the only other way to interpret things...
While Childs' lines are pretty sus, so are Macready's to be honest. Like his line "Why don't we just wait here for a little while... see what happens" is so chilling to me. I know its ridiculous but it feels like Macready is honestly the Thing himself! He also says that maybe they should just freeze to death which is exactly what the Thing (if it is still alive) wants!!!! And then when he passes the bottle on to Childs and chuckles, while the music drums behind... chilling. I know its not likely but still! I can't help but think Macready is either the Thing or knows that Childs is and has simply given up.
Either way, its a masterpiece of a scene.
So much in a few lines inside a dimly lit, burning, shack.
First great youtube video i’ve seen in a while 👍🏽! Very interesting and kept me focused and attentive.
The whole sharing the bottle thing at the end I never noticed thanks for pointing that out
One of my favorite youtubers talking about how masterfully made one of my favorite movies is… What a treat!
Nice to see you talk about one of my favourite movie from one of my favourite director ! "Prince of Darkness" and "In the mouth of madness" are two other great movies from mister John Carpenter. They came after "The Thing", but they compensate their lack of budget with a great plot, Really good practical effects and a lot of that 80's / early 90's cheesyness fun.
Came here after watching your "Wonder Woman 1984" video where you promised to discuss your first attempt at screenwriting when you hit a million subs. You are now at 1.04 M, and since this is currently you're most recent video, I thought I'd comment here to remind you.
As for some of my favorite endings: Closing the door on Kay in "The Godfather", Charles Bronson's punchline in "The Dirty Dozen", the warehouse in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", the sound of the Cooler King bouncing the baseball in "The Great Escape", the punchline in "Some Like It Hot", "Madness! Madness!" from "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "We'll Meet Again" from "Dr. Strangelove" are just a few of them.
sick that you just did this video bro i watched this movie in full for the first time 3 days ago lol crazy how life works
Another movie that was fiercely critically panned at the time of its release, incidentally.
As someone that over the years wrote and published his fair amount of movie reviews himself (well, in my native language), I quickly had to come to terms with the idea that when you pay enough attention you can easily find reviews defending or criticizing pretty much anything and its contrary.
And that no matter how "credible" or "authoritative" a critic may be, they always have at least a couple of missteps over the years, since we are all affected by personal bias.
The clue from the bottle at the end isn't that he isn't worried about drinking someone else's drink. It's that the bottle McCready gave Childs is one of the same bottles he had made Molotov Cocktails from earlier in the movie for the final battle.
So when he hands Childs the bottle, he isn't drinking alcohol.....he's drinking GASOLINE proving he's a thing. That and the fact that in that final scene McCready breath I'd billowing like a smokestack in the subfreezing temperature whereas Childs isn't breathing out at all.
Wait so he is a thing?!
@@Lonli. yes almost everyone at this point agrees Childs is a thing in the last scene
Weren’t they both discredited?
@@cmd31220 well not everyone
unconfirmed. it's A theory, but not a definite. the creators have explicitly shot down every "slam dunk" theory like "he's not breathing" or the eyeshine thing. the point is that we don't know, and anything we take as a clue isn't certain.
I've experienced this with several movies other than The Thing.
Phantasm, The Fog, Pet Sematary but my favorite unsettling ending has to be in Angel Heart from 1987.
Great video Sir!
One thing that make The Thing really terrifying is that the character try to do everything right with the given information, but they still all die in the end. Few things are as horrifying as trying your best but failing anyway.
I would love to see you make a video on The Wire. I think there's a lot of things it does very well with regards to characters and world building that would make a great video.
Oh dude, thank you so much for using my music in your essay ♡
I love the thing. My dad was a kid and loved it and now he gets to share it eith me. Love you dad. And i love this thing...
Uncertainty threaded through a film makes it memorable! Plot twists too. Damned good performances in this film.
Glad to see this movie still getting love. As a kid I kept hoping Maccready would live because of his awesome hair and beard. Was surprised and happy that he did.
The thing is a Masterpiece. best monster film ever.
Love your videos!! ❤ and love how you look like a chubby Jaskier from the netflix the Witcher!
I think it would be a neat video to discuss other movies that were hated or completely flopped and are now a beloved classic
The thing is one of the best horror films ever created and great video Closer Look :]
I feel this is why ryan goslings blade runner movie wasn't well recieved when it was first reviewed. Blade runner 1 had a cliffhanger of "is harrison ford human or a replicant? And if either, does it matter?"... then they made a sequel, that answered the cliffhanger question with a solid answer
I just rewatched this last night. This movie is so great
This is my favorite horror movie of all time and I'm so stoked closer look has decided to cover it.
The Thing grabs me in the stomach even today, just watching your video.
Oh my, a youtuber i like and my favourite movie!
Honestly, when Childs asked whether he was the only survivor, that really flew over my head
Hope you have a great christmas period. cheers
I have watched a lot of your videos and they have given me structure in forming my own story, whilst the middle, ending, climax and characters are good, the beginning isn't. I was wondering if you could make a video on how to create a good beginning to a book or movie?
Man, Carpenter really was at his peak in the late '70s and early '80s.
Babe wake up, another CloserLook video came out
What are you doing in my bed 😨 I don’t know you
Couldn't agree more. My favourite horrors are - The Thing, Alien, Candyman, Hellraiser, Jaws and Gremlins.
Amazingly well made films that all leave you with the sense of lasting dread.
The Thing - Can you really Trust anyone?
Alien - What is really out there?
Candyman - Does our belief in monsters make them real?
Hellraiser - Is your soul safe?
Jaws - Will you ever get back in the water?
Gremlins... 'So if your air conditioning goes on the fritz or your washing machine blows up or your VCR conks out. Before you call the repair man. Turn on all the lights, check all the closets and cupboards, look under all the beds. Because you never can tell, there might be a gremlin in your house'
Wonder and Terror are two sides of the same coin. A master filmmaker makes sure you will always keep flipping that coin.
An anime I can highly recommend for horror fans is "Made in Abyss". Don't let the cute art style fool you, it gets really dark. The alluring power of the Abyss is so strong that even after you watched human suffering beyond your sanity you still want to look deeper into the Abyss. It's the only anime I know that captured the horror of Lovecraft perfectly.
I was gonna watch that, but then some of the stuff I read about the show mentioned that it had some... really weird s*xual stuff happen to children. Maybe my sources were wrong for some reason or I just misunderstood, but if not then I think that's definitely something you should mention when recommending the show to people. Cause like, personally I'm totally willing to watch shows with almost any other kind of suffering or darkness or horror, but as soon as it gets s*xual that's usually a deal breaker for me
@@shadowshade904 No, I don't think I need to warn people about that.
In the first episode a child gets "strung up" naked as a form of punishment. It's child abuse without a doubt, but it's a form of punishment performed by a woman to a girl and thus clearly not s*xual. The reason for that scene is partly for worldbuilding, but more importantly to warn the audience that we'll be watching children going on an adventure into a land of nightmares. That scene is a warning.
Children will suffer and be tortured in arguably worse ways than what you see in the first episode so it's perfect that it's there. It slowly builds up the horror, so it's up to you when you think it's too much.
As for some of the nudity it's all relevant for the story. If you've ever spent any time outside of civilization you know that taking a bath or taking a dump can become quite the hassle. Those scenes are there to remind us that they're not in Kansas anymore.
Nah the other dudes right, the guy who made it apparently has a ton of creepy fetishes.
You can watch the show, it's fine. The manga on the other hand ... Yeah, that's where the weird stuff takes place
No
That anime is for pedos
You know what terrifies me now? Post-credits scenes...
I think the best sort of horror is when the main character turns out to be the monster but they're not aware of it.
For example, there was that old Nicole Kiddman movie (I forgot the movie's name) where she and her children thought their house was haunted because, they keep noticing happenings and figures within their home. Turns out she and her children are the ghosts and were stuck in their home unknowingly haunting it and the figures were actual new settlers who moved into the house.
That feeling of confusion and despair the mc feels when they find out they're the abnormality is pretty cool to see in a horror movie, IMO.
Same story for movies that let you unknowingly see through the eyes of the mentally ill like movies about alzheimer. Both sad and impressive when movies manage to portray it close to the real deal.
Do you mean "The Others"? (2001)
@@HappyGoof4 Yep I guess that's the one.
Would love to see you do a breakdown of One Piece!! There's a reason the mangaka is in the top selling authors of all-time, and the live action did a spectacular job reinterpreting it.
I watched your video on framing a movie's theme in the form of a question yesterday. Coming to this video, with its discussion on the genre of horror, raises a question for me.
To what extent are theme and genre independent? Do some theme questions lend themselves, or even necessitate, certain genres? Or is genre more related to how you answer the theme question?
I imagine this could be a topic for a whole video.
I didnt think i would find a favorite horror movie the thing proved me wrong also great timing when nando also uploaded his one last scene great vid bro
Kinda thought Mcready pouring alchol on the Computer and offering Childs at the end was the old End a film as you began.
I like the theory that the bottle they share at the end was one of the molotov cocktails, and "Childs" drinks down gas without a pause.
Pleaseeeee do Saltburn! I would love to hear your thoughts
No joke, my final project for a film studies class was analysing this scene! I talked a lot about the colours and lighting and such.
Absolutely one of the best endings around.
It really drives me nuts how some folks have just straight up made up non-existent details that "show the truth" because they just hate the ambiguity. The ambiguity is the whole point!
Carpenter practically tells you that Childs is the Thing through camera work. There's a long shot where the camera goes through the shack where Blair was held up following a hidden corridor which leads to the facility then it ends at the room Childs was posted up in. The next time you see that room the door is left open to the outside. Take note of the jackets on the wall. Childs is wearing a different one at the end and if you go back one of the jackets is missing. Which is the jacket Childs is wearing when he confronts Macready. But then again I could be wrong. That's the beauty of this movie
Carpenter never had anything planned and it was filmed intentionally ambiguous. Some scenes with shadows of characters they used people that weren't even any of the actors just to make it impossible to track who was who. It worked so well everyone is here decades later debating it
@@treborkroy5280 Few movies out there have such complexity
That's it. I'm adding The Thing to my list of Christmas / New Year's eve movies
I think he is a Ting, because, other then MacReady, by whom you can see the breath comming out, because of the cold, Childs doesn't have that.
Ah yes, we love a good Nightmare Before Christmas special.
I finally watched The Thing for the first time during October. such a great movie
You were REALLY reaching with that first bit. Childs asking "Are you the only one that made it?" makes perfect sense as something to ask someone if you got separated from a group and only see one person remaining from said group after rejoining. It in no way whatsoever hints, advocates, or suggests that Childs is The Thing in this instance.
Man, you also completely misinterpreted the end of the movie, too. McCready and ThingChilds are not going to have an epic showdown for the ages after the movie ends. McCready's chuckle and smirk shows that he believes Childs is The Thing, but he can't really do much about it. Even if he did, what's the point? They are both destined to freeze. McCready knows this and is accepting his fate that he is going to die and is hunkering down to let the snow take him away. I normally like your videos, but you did not do a good job of reading the intimate intonations and meanings behind most of this movie's ending
@@americanodudealso its never stated whether or not Two things can recognise each other or see each other as allies. They could both be waiting to freeze and be rediscovered by more humans.
Completely agree
@@joevines3428If two Things can't recognize each other then Blair's computer simulation is out the window, because Things would waste time attacking "humans" that were already Things.
Did you mentionned the fact that Childs does not breath in the last scene ? When he speaks, the is no misty cloud due to the cold… but Russel has.
When I i first saw this, I expected just a cheesy old horror flick. I had also read a lot of Lovecraft by that point in my life, but knew nothing of this movie.
I fell in love with it about 20 minutes in. So masterfully done. It set a new standard for what I should expect from horror, no matter the decade it was made. And it lead me me to more movies I may not have given a chance to before.
Ya know the ending to this video is pretty terrifying because there’s uncertainty if I’m going to tryout Mubi ooooooo~
P.S. love your videos man. They’re a really big help when it comes to writing my indie film.
I like the idea that neither of the two men are a thing, but they spend their last moments freezing to death in the snow thinking the other is one
Me seeing this video in my recommendations:
"First goddamn week of winter"
The proverbial "wolf in sheep's clothing" has always been one of the most disturbing concepts to humanity. Dangerous beasts are one thing, but a "traitor" within your own group is possibly the worst scenario for social creatures like us. Especially, when you have to rely on a group for your very survival.
It coulda been mac, even though we just saw him work really hard to kill the thing, the movie never said the different things had to work together. Maybe the mac thing figured that killing the other things is the best way for him to survive, since survival is the things greatest goal. And when he passed the bottle, he coulda been laughing since he infected it.
you forgot to mention the fact the bottle is actualy ptobably full of gasoline as we see the protagonist prepare molotov cocktail in those same bottles earlier in the film
Or MacReady chuckles because he is the Thing and now he infected Childs with the flask :D we wont know for sure.
Hmm, interesting interpretation, though it's maybe not the most likely one because MacReady just killed the big monster. Why would he kill one of his own kind?
@@TheCloserLookthat assumes that infection is immediate, MacReady wasn't infected during the fight, all things are on the same side, the flask didn't infect MacReady... So much to be paranoid about
Pfc. King would NEVER hurt a fellow homie!
Kurt Russell is the infected one, I say!
Henry you are so fucking good at these video essays
I just now thought of this but didn't Macready give Blair a bottle of alcohol before leaving him?? And doesn't where this scene takes place look suspiciously like that shack?? What's more, how DID Blair become the Thing???
The Woman in Black managed to build and hold suspense beautifully. No other film has haunted me that much for so long after watching it!
Crazy tension, mysterious who's who, and then you realize deeply that MacReady is infected and chuckles when he passes his contaminated lippy bottle to Childs, infecting the last human survivor.
The Thing is my favorite horror movie of all time. It has practical effects that still holds up today in my opinion. This "One Last Scene" series sounds interesting.
The 1978 _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_ is another great example of horror done right. Even though the final scene confirms that Matthew is a duplicate, it still catches you by surprise and is genuinely terrifying.
Theres not much scarier than ambiguity to most people.
Brilliant
The Thing is great also because you can easily view it through a perspective of an alient, desperately trying to survive.
My favorite version of this is MacReady has been infected, and gave Childs his drink, with that Chuckle being the Thing, having narrowly won out in the end.
makes even more sense if you go with what carpenter initially intended before making it ambiguous which was that macready was really the thing all along and he was infected by that same bottle right at the start when the dog-thing licked one guys glove and macready immediately handed the guy the bottle clearly showing on screen that the licked portion of the glove touches the rim. there are loads of other scenes that are explained by taking that perspective. macready gives childs the boottle and infects him at the end. its important to note that everyone just -assumes- everyone knew to avoid eating or drinking because one guy had that idea and told macready before immediately dying offscreen. but macready never shares this with anyone, so childs wouldnt have known to be careful of the bottle which macready could have infected him with at the end, which explains the theme music playing as he drinks.
Apparently on an interview on the bonus features for big trouble In little china, with john carpenter and kurt russell.
john carpenter says neither childs nor mcready are the thing.
I feel like ambiguous ending aren't really done anymore. This is an excellent example of how to do it right.
Less really is more. The cracking of the base on fire. A bit of dialogue and then Morricone's End Titles music. Nuff said.