To most people, the name John Carpenter is (and will always be) related to the "Halloween" franchise, but personally, I find "The Thing" and this film as the best works of his career.

A spectacular homage to H.P Lovecraft. This movie often goes under looked by many people, but I consider it to be one of Carpenters best. It explores the wors of Lovecraft beyond weird tentacle monsters, which should excite fans of either Carpenter or Lovecraft.

Fun watch..I sure miss practical effects

This is not really a gory or scary movie, but it has a number of nightmarish images that may give you a chill. The plot centers around Sutter Cane, an author who writes horror novels that are becoming reality for those that read them. It’s a little hard to follow but keeping the viewer disoriented seems part of the plan. It's fair to call this "Lovecraftian" for certain, but in regards to the beasts or the "old ones", their representation here is mostly underwhelming. In fact, I don't think visually seeing them is even very useful to the plot. They are clearly an ancient evil that has been called by Cane and cause the madness that is infecting the world. This is a decent little "end-of-the-world" story.

The idea of reality being but consensus blew my mind in the nineties and this movie still blows my mind today. Damn is so good! And Sam Neill... Oh, so close to perfection. My only gripe is my common one for Lovecraftian stories. [spoiler]The undescribable cosmic horror of monsters beyond human comprehension being reduced to slimy tentacle wielding muppets. Despite the practical effects being cheesy but nice, the elder monsters really shouldn't be seen at all, in my humble opinion.[/spoiler].