October will no doubt be a month full of frightening film releases in preparation for Halloween. One of those releases will be Universal’s prequel to their 1982 cult classic “The Thing.” The original, starring Kurt Russell and directed by the master of horror himself John Carpenter, was itself a remake of a 1950′s Howard Hawks production entitled “The Thing from Another World.” The plot, based mostly on a short story entitled “Who Goes There?” written in the 1930′s, tells the tale of an Antarctic research facility overrun by an extraterrestrial force that thrives on absorbing and ultimately imitating the form of the living things it kills. It’s a plot that stinks of suspense. Unfortunately, the special effects have yet been able to project the story’s potential properly onto the silver screen.

Don’t get me wrong – the John Carpenter classic is packed with nauseatingly realistic glimpses of the alien ripping its way through the bodies of soon-to-be hosts, which for their day were pretty spectacular. Regardless, the true entertainment of the 1980′s version came not from the gore, but from having to guess who was “the thing” and who wasn’t during the whole length of the film. Personally, a horror movie isn’t interesting unless you need psychic readings to determine what’s about to happen next. But when it comes to the scenes depicting creature transformation which are meant to reveal the true power of “The Thing,” will the prequel released next month take advantage of 30 years of special effects evolution that have taken place since its predecessor was shot?

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Continuing my series of weekly updates from the Blazing Minds blog where I list blog posts I’ve enjoyed reading as well as some of the stats for the week, such as the top 5 referring websites that have graciously sent me some traffic over the week.

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So Halloween is upon us again and it’s that time when people are looking for Halloween costumes to wear, throwing up Halloween decorations and buying stacks of sweets to give to those unwelcome kids that are trying to scare the crap out of people!

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