Tranzor’s The Thing: Late Night TV Edit

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.

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.

March 20, 2010 @ 12:30 am

Great edit.
Love the commercials! Hungry Hungry Hippos baby!
This ranks up there with TMBTM’s grindhouse Jaws and Star Wars edits.

Grab all 3 and have a grindhouse movie night!

9/10

But I’m still sad that I missed that comic book convention that was advertised. ;)

April 16, 2010 @ 7:05 am

First of all, I wish I had gotten this LONG ago! I loved it! This was a great movie to do over in this style. The feel of it was perfect, from the darkness, to the hard cuts, to the odd choices for commercial breaks, etc… (nice ads, too. I remembered a couple of them) Everything clicked.

I’m going to be highly recommending this for sure! I’ll give it a well deserved 9/10. :)

P.S. If you can, try to catch “Off Beat Cinema” (http://www.offbeatcinema.com/), which I catch Saturday nights on the Buffalo ABC affiliate. It is hosted by beatniks in black and white and features mostly old black and white oddities, many being 50′s sci-fi schlock. It’s very much in the vein of this edit, just without chopping up the movies like they used to. Fun stuff!

June 28, 2010 @ 7:38 am

Been meaning to watch this for probably close to a year. Watched it just now. I LOVED it!! The new opening is a great way to get the story going. The new ending was also a great way to get to the conclusion faster. The commercials are what did it for me. It was definitely cool seeing commercials for stores based in NYC since that’s where I’m from.

My only dislike was presenting this in black and white. I was really looking forward to see the grainy-ness and color deterioration. Now, I understand that since the original is in black and white, maybe that’s what you were going for. Then again, I was born in 1984, so I obviously can’t connect with what you’re aiming for from a nostalgic viewpoint. However, what attracted me to this fan edit is my obsession for nostalgia. I loved Grindhouse. I can still remember the commercials and tv station logos for movies I watched as a kid that my mom taped off of tv. Also because this is one of my favorite movies of course.

Anyway, overall this was a great edit. 9/10.