Review Detail

7.8 17 10
FanFix August 15, 2012 4427
(Updated: September 12, 2012)
Enjoyment
 
8.0
April 8, 2008 @ 3:43 pm

Not being an American it is hard for me to feel nostalgic for an era of television I never experienced. This FanEdit version of John Carpenter’s The Thing appears to me like an experiment in the Grindhouse vain.

The degradation of the image is well done but the constant popping is too obviously a vinyl record rather than film crackling. Also this effect is needed only at the beginning of each scene, to establish it, and then it should inaudibly fade out as the constancy of the popping become tiresome. The image plays more like a poor video reproduction than a television broadcast.

I feel an opportunity to instill more humor into this FanEdit was missed. The eradication of the profanity was funny in itself but an overall upping of the comedic level, say in the editing techniques used by Monty Python in their classic Holy Grail, would have made this FanEdit more rewarding and possibly hilarious. For example, I was waiting for the lip syncing to go out of time at a key moment or a reception failure and apology title card during a climactic scene. Maybe a scene could play inexplicably for a few seconds with the Japanese vocal soundtrack or the continuity of a scene ruined with some playful editing. I would have loved to have seen sudden images of, say an erotic movie suddenly pop up as if this version was taped over and old vhs cassette and the original image is bleeding through.

The highlight of this FanEdit are the commercial breaks which are inspired and set the tone for more comedic content. Maybe I am missing the point but if people want the story of the John Carpenters The Thing they would just watch the original. This FanEdit needs that something special to make it stand on it’s own.

I am not sure who the audience is for something like this but as I have said: turning this FanEdit into an avert comedy rather than a homage to a bygone era, would widen the audience.
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