The Thing From Another World - Definition and Overview

The Thing From Another World is a 1951 science fiction film which tells the story of scientists at a remote Arctic outpost who fight an alien being. It stars Margaret Sheridan, Dewey Martin, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite and Douglas Spencer. James Arness plays The Thing, in unrecognizable costume and makeup.

The movie was loosely adapted by Charles Lederer from the story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, Jr.. It was directed by Howard Hawks (uncredited) and Christian Nyby. The film changes the fundamental nature of the alien as presented in Campbell's short story. Arness's "Thing" is a humanoid monster whose cellular structure is closer to vegetation; it must feed on human blood to survive. One character describes the Thing as an "animated carrot".

When American Movie Classics was showing the movie in the 1990s, the introduction related a story about the creation of the creature's makeup. The makeup artist supposedly went through several revisions of the creature's face. He would test each one by putting the full makeup on James Arness and taking him for a drive through L.A. At one point, a woman in the next car screamed and fainted upon seeing the creature. The makeup artist "knew he had a winner" and used that face in the movie. Not mentioned by AMC was the fact that the creature's face is never clearly seen in the film.

The Thing From Another World was remade by John Carpenter as The Thing in 1982. The remake was more faithful to the Campbell story. In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the original film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. It was released on DVD in 2003.