Review Detail
7.8 17 10
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.
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