You gotta be fucking kidding.
Ben here. I haven’t done a Watching Hour Preview for a while, but I couldn’t pass on tonight. Tonight’s Watching Hour selection is one of my all time favorite movies ever in the history of anything, John Carpenter’s The Thing. I could probably count the number of 100% perfect horror movies on my fingers, but The Thing certainly has a secure spot in that exclusive company.
If you read this blog with any regularity I would imagine you’re the type of person who has already seen The Thing plenty of times and that it’s one of your favorites as well. So I probably don’t need explain how perfectly Carpenter blends psychological, Body Snatcher-esque horror with gory, effects driven monster horror. Or how much of a badass Kurt Russell is. Or how flesh-stretching special effects maestro Rob Bottin’s work on the actual monster raises this from being a good story to being a great movie. Or how Ennio Morricone and John Capenter’s score is probably the best electronic soundtrack ever composed, dated but still singularly effective in it’s dread and sense of isolation.
He decided to stay home instead of going to Watching Hour, and now look what happened.
I can’t be objective about this, so forgive me if I’m overhyping. I love me some Thing. Seeing this movie in 35mm is a rare opportunity, one that I’ve been waiting for for a long time. This is one of my “bucket list” movies to see on the big screen. So if you want to see a 27-year old grown adult completely flip his shit like a little kid on his first trip to Chucky Cheese, get yer ass out to the Denver Film Center tonight for The Thing.
The Watching Hour is a weekly film series at the Denver Film Center Colfax, highlighting new and old cult, genre, or otherwise bizarro movies. Quite simply, The Watching Hour is the best thing to do in Denver on a Friday night. From Giallo to schlock, Blaxploitation to Aussiesploitation, zombies to martial arts to who-knows-what, and everywhere in between. This is good ol’ rock and roll cinema spectacle. Not to be missed. (See the schedule, buy tickets, get directions, etc. here.)