Tranzor’s The Thing: Late Night TV Edit

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7.8 (17)
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Tranzor’s The Thing: Late Night TV Edit
Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Genre:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
1982
Original Running Time:
109
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
82
Time Cut:
37
Time Added:
10
Brief Synopsis:
I wanted to make an edit similar in style to how television stations (US) would present horror/sci-fi movies back in the 1970′s to early 80′s. This is mainly for the older crowd who can recall the days of Chiller Theater and other tv horror movie hosted shows that have truly disappeared off the airwaves.
Intention:
I wanted to make an edit similar in style to how television stations (US) would present horror/sci-fi movies back in the 1970′s to early 80′s. This is mainly for the older crowd who can recall the days of Chiller Theater and other tv horror movie hosted shows that have truly disappeared off the airwaves.
Additional Notes:
What some of you may not understand is that back in those days (70′s-early 80′s), television stations would show really crappy print quality horror and sci-fi films. You did not have dvd transfers for TV or anything else (vcrs were NOT COMMON). Also TV stations would REALLY BUTCHER most of these prints down due to content or running time or both. Sometimes characters in movies would disappear for no reason or you would get things hacked or see frames missing, etc. Like grindhouse but on TV instead. You have to keep this in mind when viewing my edit (and again this is why it is aimed more towards the older crowd who will remember those days). I made this to look and feel as if you really were watching this on TV back then late at night. This is how it actually would have been presented. TV changed towards the mid 80′s and on and became a bit more liberal and also restored some of the films they would show (and a lot of the other films we used to see have never aired again since those days).
Release Information:
DVD
Cuts and Additions:
- edited JC's the thing down to 72 mins and made it black and white (altered the film a bit as well)
- Zoomed in on the widescreen picture to make a new pan/scan image
- added lots of film grain and other such noise to give it that old shitty print look.
- added “old scratchy record” effects to the sound to give it that feeling of a rotting 16mm film
- Added Channel 7 ABC’s Saturday night movie intro (early 80′s)
- added in four 1-3 min commercial sets from 1981
- added in WOR-TV chan 9 “fright night” cut aways before and after each commercial break
- borrowed RKO logo and minor music from the 1933 King kong for help wih my titles
- Edited the movie for gore/cursing, or anything else that would not fly on tv back then edited and changed the ending to strongly resemble a 1950′s sci-fi film send-off
Cover art by Tranzor (DOWNLOAD HERE)
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Cover art by Kal-El (DOWNLOAD HERE)
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User reviews

17 reviews
 
59%
 
35%
5-7 stars
 
0%
 
6%
1-3 stars
 
0%
Overall rating
 
7.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0(4)
Audio Editing
 
7.8(4)
Visual Editing
 
7.8(4)
Narrative
 
6.7(3)
Enjoyment
 
8.8(17)
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Overall rating
 
4.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
7.0
Audio Editing
 
3.0
Visual Editing
 
3.0
Narrative
 
4.0
Enjoyment
 
5.0
I've been interested in watching this for a while but I wasn't able to find it till recently. I always assumed this was the film presented as a 1970s/80s TV cut, but now I'm not so sure. I think it's meant to be a 70/80s TV presentation of an older 50s film possibly? The reason I say that is that the RKO logo (although lifted from King Kong) gives an association with The Thing from Another World (1951) and the edit is presented in black and white. Then again, you also have the original score, complete with 80s synth, so tbh I find the presentation a little confusing.

Ignoring that and focusing on the late night tv presentation, the dirty retro TV aesthetic is a fun touch, if lacking. Quality is a washed out looking SD source, then made to be even murkier. While low res and shoddy looking, that's part of the intent and the image is not loaded with compression artifacts. All in all I'd say it works just fine for the concept, even if it's not always pleasant to look at. The audio is appropriately dull with consistent hiss. The added crackle gets a bit repetitive, but overall it sells the vibe.

The grindhouse-like effects themselves aren't that well realised though, showing a pretty obvious loop of dirt and scratches which get a bit tedious (as someone else mentioned). The framing doesn't always focus on the subject of the shot and pretty much comes across like it's just a straight up conversion, with the image zoomed into the centre of the shot. This means that sometimes the action is even entirely off screen. A couple of particularly bizarre examples: one is when the crew are watching the TV footage back. It's easy enough to just nudge the framing so that the TV is fully in shot, but instead you have the right part of the screen cut off. And again during the blood test sequence, the jump scare is completely ineffective because Macready's hand, along with the blood sample, is completely off-screen.

The audio cuts are very jarring; pretty much hard cuts with seemingly no crossfade, creating random jumps in the score. It's possible that this is part of the TV experience, but it seems to me to be a bit of a copout if it's on literally every cut. Visual cuts are the same, with random shots showing for a split second or massive frame jumps. I've seen a fair few grindhouse edits and there does seem to be a line between creating the effect of bad editing from the time and then just not taking the time to make your cuts work, and this comes across more like the latter.

The narrative jumps right into the Norwegian camp scene with the original opening entirely excised. An interesting choice and it could work well enough. No context beyond two people exploring an abandoned research station is actually an intriguing start. Unfortunately, this then means we have no context for why an alien dog is among the crew. It would have made much more sense for the dog to be cut entirely, allowing for a lack of gore for the concept of the edit, quickening the pace and with all ensuing events easily presumed to be the result of the found alien corpse. The concept itself states an intent to cut gore, but it's hugely inconsistent with this. While all the nastier bits from the dog scene are skipped over, for some reason we see the autopsy scene in full, with Blair tearing apart flesh and pulling out organs (arguably the gooiest scene in the movie). The ending is also bizarrely off. I can see what Traznor was going for, but it's just confusing, jarring and abrupt. It doesn't work IMO. Again, I know some of this is what we're to expect out of a TV edit (described by Traznor as "grindhouse but on tv") but I've seen the jarring nature of these concepts delivered in more convincing and entertaining ways than here.

All in all, I'd say the strength of the edit is the inserted TV opening and commercials etc. They definitely sell the vibe and make for a unique experience (I was especially pleased to see a trailer for Time Bandits make the cut). But these were so much the highlight that The Thing footage itself was just disappointing by comparison, simply because the execution just didn't seem to be there.

User Review

Format Watched?
Digital
T
Top 50 Reviewer 103 reviews
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Overall rating
 
8.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
This was a great edit. At times it really felt like a genuine "edited for TV" movie. Other times the concept felt a little forced. I personally would have put a lot more commercial breaks in there.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
DVD
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(Updated: January 12, 2014)
Overall rating
 
8.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
being from the UK i don't fully understand the era in which Tranzor is aiming for but i do like fanedits that have a concept behind them. the concept that this is a late night TV film works perfectly and the adverts are a good addition adding humor into edit. even though huge chunks of the film have been cut the tension which is one of the best elements of the film remains intact.

on the negative side i felt the hairs and starches were a little over done and become a little repetitive. i would have preferred it just to be B/W with grain added. the ending i found to be a little abrupt but reading Tranzors intent i guess it fits within the overall concept. overall this edit is rightly regarded as been one of the best fanedits around.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
DVD
Report this review Comments (1) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
May 15, 2011 @ 9:01 am

While I’ll be 33 years old later this year, I can still recall the time period that Tranzor has attempted to recapture with this edit. Channel 50 Detroit (well before Fox assimilated it) first exposed me to “The Thing” back in the mid-eighties when I was still a wee lad, and they also aired classic horror/sci-fi movies from the fifties late at night (although I can’t remember which days they did so…but I’d assume Saturday nights). I was also a huge fan of Elvira and “Dr. Shock’s X-Ray Chiller Theater” as I grew into adolescence. When I saw this, it immediately made me nostalgic for those forgotten times.

With “The Thing” still being my all-time favorite movie after all these years, I knew I had to check this out, despite my initial qualms about having to endure RapidShare in order to download it…but the wait was worth it.

Much like the Thing itself, Tranzor has morphed this classic flick into an entirely new monster; a fusion of different eras in both the horror and sci-fi genres. While the FX of “The Thing” would have been impossible in the fifties and sixties (a span of time that Tranzor’s “vintage” presentation of this movie strives to represent), I was never cognizant of such details as I watched it. It almost felt like a new movie; a classic from the fifties or sixties that was aired on a local television program in the early eighties and recorded on a VCR.

I only have two minor gripes, but they’re more like suggestions and they have nothing to do with Tranzor’s work on this edit. For one, I would like to see Megaupload mirrors for the DVD files. If it wasn’t for my established love of this movie beforehand, I may not have spent an entire day downloading it from RapidShare, which makes you wait 30 minutes in between files if you’re not a premium (paying) user. The other is the DVD artwork. I like it as it is, but I think new DVD artwork based on the banner art for this particular edit (found at http://www.fanedit.org/forums/content.php?82-Tranzor-Banner) would really rock the house.

In closing, I have to say that this edit is a fun new way to watch “The Thing.” This will certainly be in my DVD player again around Halloween. Excellent job, Tranzor.
D
1 reviews
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Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
December 21, 2010 @ 1:07 pm

Tranzor's The Thing

Review by Captain Khajiit

I have often felt nostalgic for television from a bygone era, so I fully understood the faneditor's intention. The concept for the edit was great, and the implementation did it justice. Anyone who watches this edit will be left in no doubt that the faneditor knew what he wanted to achieve and exactly how to achieve it. The attention to detail in this edit was most impressive: from the pan-and-scan image to the noisy black-and-white print, everything was in place. The result was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Video
All the changes to the video worked well, and the quality is what it should have been given the faneditor's intention. The only point that I might raise is that the lines that were added to the print seemed to be somewhat overused, though it might well be that this was a limitation of the filter and beyond the faneditor's control.
9 out of 10

Audio
The scratchy record track effect was well implemented. Again, I sometimes felt that it was a little overused, but I have no real complaints.
9 out of 10

Presentation
Everything was fine. There is appropriate cover art and a particularly pleasing “live” menu that set the mood for the edit perfectly. I smiled when I saw it because it was so delightfully fitting.
9 out of 10

Editing and Entertainment
The editing was seamless except where it wasn't meant to be! I have rarely seen a fanedit that has successfully transformed a film to this extent. In accordance with the title, I watched this late at night and was fully entertained. I cannot think of anything else that the faneditor could have done. The old commercials were the icing on the cake!
10 out of 10

Overall rating: It's a rare 10 out of 10 from me.

Watch Tranzor's The Thing late at night and you're in for a treat.
C
Top 500 Reviewer 33 reviews
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