Thing: The Musical aka Escape from the Shining Alien Thing from Beyond the Stars, The

A master class in editing with countless pop culture references and easter eggs. But don't let the trailer fool you into expecting campy humor à la Sugar, Abrahams and Sugar every few seconds. It's more of an homage to the original film with comedy elements. I love the 80's, I love my Facehuggers, but as I said - I would have liked (maybe it's my ADHS) a faster pace. Howevery that's just my taste and doesn't take anything away from this super creative movie.

As there was no Changelist, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this... it basically takes The Thing and turns it into an absurdist comedy. After skimming through and picking that up, I put off watching it for the right day, pulled out a couple beers to set the right vibe, and prepared for an evening of silly fun..... but I just didn't connect with it.

This is a fanedit that deserves the Paradigm Award, a real example of creativity and the power of fanediting. But as it's a comedy now, your enjoyment will vary largely based on your sense of humor. This just wasn't mine. I chuckled once or twice, but my most common reactions were just "Okaaay..." and "WTF..." I got the jokes it was going for, they just weren't funny to me. In particular, a couple of motifs are relied on and hit about a half dozen times, when they would've been funny if just used once or twice.

You know what I really dug about this? The OUTAKES. The file is worth getting for those alone, which made me laugh a lot. 20 minutes where BlueYoda really GOES for it, just complete non-sequitirs. I wished that would've more been the tone of the movie: complete disregard for narrative in favor of ridiculous send-up.

As is, the film esentially tells the same story of The Thing, only there are basically no moments of dread or horror because the tone is all off. The Thing is a stone-cold classic as-is, so the only way to do something fun with it is just complete irreverance. This came close for me, but needed to go farther in order to work.

That said, I can imagine this REALLY working for some people. It's executed almost flawlessly, so if your sense of humor matches, you'll be in for a treat.