Welcome to the latest installment of the ongoing series Virgin Territory, in which I watch a movie I've never seen and talk about it with someone who loves it. This week I sit down with our own Movie News Editor Eric Eisenberg, who is one of many, many people who has insisted over the years that I finally see John Carpenter's The Thing. Of course, I then made the mistake of seeing the new The Thing movie before the original, but I was impressed enough by the practical effects, mounting tension, and Kurt Russell's massive hat in the original that I think I made up for it.
Check out our 15 minute conversation below, in which we talk about why those practical effects are so original, how they build tension without going for the standard horror movie jump scares, and how it fits in with the kind of horror movies being made at the time that no one these days seems to be able to match.
For the rest of the Virgin Territory series, go here, where you can find me talking The Road Warrior with Max Evry, Apocalypse Now with Dave Gonzales, Superman: The Movie with Matt Patches, All the President's Men with James Rocchi, Terms of Endearment with Mike Ryan, and The Evil Dead with Eric Eisenberg.
