John Carpenter's The Thing, Lost in Adaptation ~ Dominic Noble &  

But seriously, go check out my co host channel: ru-vid.com/show-UCm3EY6Fmp-wlcLB6Q6X0PLg

John Carpenter intentionally swapped around the names of many of the people who were infected or human, so that if you read the book it would catch you off-guard.

I find it funny/ironic that you watched a horror movie about a shape shifting alien while clutching Ditto the shape shifting Pokémon.

I'm so glad you're doing things exactly as you want: not straining your voice, going with a name you prefer, etc.

How can you clam not being able to watch horror movies? You survived the 50 shades trilogy, you are way braver than I will ever be!

‘Nope nope nope nope...’ ADORABLE!!! It’s ok, Dom, your kitties will protect you. Also your fearsome Lady 😊❤️

Am I the only one that finds it absolutely hilarious that Dominic is holding a Ditto plush, considering the subject matter of the work featured?

A prize for guessing in advance how many different ways I pronounce MacReady in this 😅

You and Kate did a fantastic job with this collaboration. It felt like a very equal presentation where you both shined, and I was amused by the weird gore fest of The Thing. Don't mind looking at Kurt Russell, either. ;) I vote for Kate being in more LiAs.

You should do a lost in adaptation on Jaws. Those two are completely different stories

I'm glad the film cut the "ship is made of magnesium" bit since, as Linkara pointed out in his review of one of the comics, a ship made of that stuff would have melted during reentry.

Not to defend racism or any such thing, but I do believe in separating the artist from their art and (especially as we are well passed the point that you would be supporting him for doing so) feel that one should be able to read Who Goes There? without worry of supporting or enjoying the work of a racist. Lovecraft is my favorite author of all time, been reading him since I was a kid just getting into horror, I may strongly disagree with his views, but I very much enjoy his work. Anyways, was really happy to see this pop up into my feed, this is literally my favorite movie of all time. Watch it every single year in October and usually at least a couple times outside of then.

Good to see you the Dom. Your chemistry with That Movie Chick is great. You two should do horror movies adaptations more often. Wait...the Fly was written by a Nazi hunter?! Awesome.

One theory I heard for why the thing decided to go stealth is that it tried to do the slasher thing for the Norwegians but the Norwegians managed to fight it off so it changed tactics

I was not expecting an episode of John Carpenter's The Thing to be this adorable XD

"You tried to watch a scary movie again, didn't you?" Dom makes an I-just-peed-myself noise. "You want to come over and watch it with you?" Dom makes a happier I-just-peed-myself noise. Dom, you are hilarious.

I love the touch of you holding a ditto for protection against the shape-shifting monster 😂

You should do more crossovers! You have infectious chemistry with practically anyone you share the screen with!

In my opinion, Who Goes There is pretty good and worth a read. Personally I think one should separate the art from the artist. John Campbell's personal views don't change the quality of the story. Plus he's dead, so you don't have to worry about financially supporting him by buying his books.

A dom crossover, just as rare as an episode of a Dom of ice and fire

Dom's "Mmhm" whine is perfect. I can watch it over and over again for hours. I too, am also a fraidy cat when it comes to horror. Always have been.

As someone who avoids horror stuff like the plague, I completely understand your feelings Dominic. Good on you for doing the review anyway.

I first watched The Thing when I was about 12 or 13, and it seriously messed me up for weeks afterwards. For months I literally didn't trust anyone. Even family members could be shape-shifting monsters that wanted to kill me. Love it now, though. Masterpiece of the genre.

Hey Dom, will you consider doing the Hannibal Lecter books?

"I have a friend who has a spaceship". Amusingly one of the best explained plot point in the Reviewniverse.

The dom "nope, nope ,nope , nope" I wonder if it was the head spider or mouth chest that broke the dom?

Actually, at the end of "The Thing" one of the surviving crew members was a "thing". John Carpenter confirmed this years later, and there is significant evidence that one of them is a "thing", so really the entire world is fucked

I like that a super racist segregationist's book was adapted into a film that featured Black crew members who were treated as equals and had some really good characterization.

Hello, Dominic! I just wanted to say that I hope you're doing well, and I wanted to thank you for your lovely videos. I always enjoy them, and I love how you perfectly balance additude, sarcasm, and class. Edit: Thanks a bunch for the heart. Keep up the amazing work.

This movie will always have a bittersweet place in my heart. My friends dad was in a hospital type bed in her living room (basically hospice care) he had stopped being coherent or communicating for weeks. We were watching this film with him in the bg and every now and then he would quip something, proving he was still in there. I still remember him saying “Kurt Russell should have gotten rid of those shredded pjs. He’s in trouble now” probably among his last cogent utterances.

"I have a friend who has his own spaceship." I know you're talking about Linkara, but my first thought was Zaphod Beeblebrox.

Many historical writers held views which would be disapproved of today. What matters is not the beliefs of the writer, but whether their writing is good.

John Carpenter’s The Thing is easily one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s written so well and acted perfectly

It’s worth the watch for the practical effects alone That spider head is AWESOME!!

Damn, you were right about offensive images. That ET clip had shotguns instead of flashlights. 🤤

The guy MacReady shot was coming at him with a knife. How was it not self defense?

I always figured the sizable armory in the 1982 film was due to Cold War paranoia being depicted at the American station, since it was still a part of life when the movie came out.

Maybe it's just me, but the character of an author has never really influenced my ability to enjoy a story. I care if the flaws such as racism are shown in the style of the writing, such as intentionally killing off specific characters without any narrative purpose to it, but even with that its a problem with the book rather than the author I take issue with.

When it comes to 'John Carpenter's: The Thing', I have to recommend a short story that was in turn recommended to me: 'The Things' by Peter Watts. It's a harrowing bit of existential horror that completely re-contextualizes the entire movie, making it terrifying in a whole new way.

I honestly dont understand why it matters if the author was racist if the story in question isn't Like I find it important to try and seperate the art from the artist because if we were to stop listening/watching/reading things by terrible people then a lot of old classic will probably have to be thrown out the window Hell some modern shit would too

It's subtly hinted at the end of The Thing that Keith David's character was actually a thing because Kurt Russel offered him a drink like he did with the computer that beat him at chess. And the fact he accepted the drink without concern that he might get infected.

OK. someone has to say it: if you can't seperat the art from the artist you failed as a critic. It makes no sense using your modern moral standards on long dead people from 100 years ago. It doesn't add anything to the story, the film or the review knowing what John Campbell's political views were.

The problem with judging an author by the fact he was racist in the 30's is that at the time racism was and ignorance based social commonality. He was racist, our grandparents were racist everyone was. Not saying it was right, it was most definitely wrong. But not every racist was a bad person, just ignorant.

John carpenter The Thing is one of my all time favourite movies

I've never seen That Movie Chick's work before but this was a fantastic crossover

in my opinion a book should be judged by its own merits and not the merits of the author, If Jesus Christ wrote Atlas shrugged we would still consider it a bad book

First: The book was okay, the movie was awesome being gory was the 80's credo Second: You forgot the ending of the movie was ambiguous as hell. That Childs is possibly infected by the thing

Why keep bringing up the author's racism when it isn't reflected in the work itself? There is no point to it other than you trying to guilt trip people who may have already read and enjoyed the short story.

, hey dom, love your work! I was wondering if you could do the spider Wick chronicles from 2008

The Fly is some prime Jeff Goldblum doing his Jeff Goldblum thing. Good on you for braving your way through The Thing!

Dominic's reaction is exactly how I feel about watching most horror movies. When I watched this one for the first time a few months ago I found it pretty cool but the scene with the dogs nearly made me turn it off. Did it's job though, I was scared nearly the entire movie. So...go Carpenter. Nice work.

Dom: I don't like this author because he's a racist Also Dom: Let me praise H.P. Lovercraft I'm not saying HP Lovecraft is bad writer I'm just saying you can't hate one author's work solely on the fact that he's a racist for one and not the other. It's called consistency.

I have been waiting for this. John Carpenter is my personal favorite director and The Thing is not only, in my opinion, his Magnum Opus, but also my all-time favorite horror movie and one of my favorite movies period. Haven't read the original novella, but I do want to someday.

My goodness, The Dom, I can’t do that! My best friend’s dragon is pregnant and requires a rather large mountain of gold for nesting purposes! I’m afraid my money is quite tied up right now. (But great review, and warning at the start appreciated.)

Campbell's racism was part of him being an enlightened Progressive is an era when the science of eugenics was settled for all properly thinking intellectuals. One wonders what beliefs considered enlightened today will be condemned by future generations.

Hmm I wonder if he'll ever do a review with krimson rogue.

So I take it in general you're not really able to separate the artist from their work? I dont really think an author's/creator's person is an actual criticism of a given book/work

Murder on the Planet Express the Futurama episode is my favourite adaptation of this story

if only this channel had a host who isn't afraid of confronting ideas even when he dosn't agree with them, or doesn't think that using bad language makes him look cool, and that basically understands that literature can't exist without intellectual freedom. like this young lady does.

I'm still waiting for Phantom of the Opera

When the cast turns around to see a head crawling across the floor may be John Carpenter's finest moment as a director.

I'm a bit disappointed in your inability to separate art from the artist Dominic. I somewhat understand it if the artist in question is still alive like Orson Scott Card, but Lovecraft and Campbell are both long dead so endorsing their works would not in any way be enabling them to spread prejudice. Besides you're only hurting yourself by not allowing yourself to enjoy great stories on account of something naughty the author did.

13:20 "The sheer amount of heavy fire arms available to these [American] 'scientists' seems a little excessive..." Oh you adorable adorable non-American. That's just... so cute.

I love that you include a reference to Linkara (I have a friend who has his own spaceship), who has extensively reviewed all the spinoff comics that The Thing inspired, and is the reason I know about the property. ...the rest of the video is great too.

I love this film. As for the "excessive" guns given to our characters, remember- it was set and filmed during the latter half of the Cold War.

I feel like separating art from artists is difficult depending on the genre. For example if someone writes a super empowering feminist book, that sounds dope! If you later find out that the person is in fact an abusive TERF then the girl power message falls a bit flat. Basically it's hard to read a Lovecraft novel knowing that every time he says "good breeding" he means "not you".

Given the time time-period they lived in, what you view as racism was not viewed as such. Segregation was just a natural barrier between the different races, to not create more mongrels and to retain the 'race'. (such was the view) The founding fathers of the US would most likely, by and large, be shocked and horrified by the number of interracial marriages and mongrels in today's America. You have to take into account the world view of that time and not just judge them from our current worldview.

John W. Cambell being a rascist does not take away from the story. I can seperate the man from his works. Besides Lovecraft was just as bad, if not worse, and im a big fan of his stories.

The picture of John Campbell holding the science fiction magazine Analog. John Campbell was an editor of it.

Have you ever considered doing a "Lost in adaptation" of Felidae, "A novel of cats and murder?"

Have you ever heard of separating the art from the artist?

The Fly would probably be an interesting one to cover, given that the original 50s version was more closer to the short story while the 80s remake changed quite a lot.

In defense of the "optimistic" movie ending, Childs is almost certainly a duplicate at the end since he *DOWNS A MOLOTOV COCKTAIL LIKE IT'S WATER,* meaning that MacReady is super dead either way.

John Carpenter's The Thing...honestly it's one of the best horror and sc-fi movie ever and a landmark in practical effects...Also a great psychological movie ! Also fun fact, the original Thing movie appear in Halloween !

I think it's a bit harsh trying to dissuade people from reading the book just cause the author was racist, like he's dead it's not like you're funding his views or anything, it's like with lovecraft, I don't support his views but I enjoy his stories

I fail to see why the politics of a man long dead should have any bearing on the enjoyment of a work of fiction.

Im noticing this in a few videos now that touch on stories, or their writers, with questionable content or beliefs. And that's personsl bias in a review. Yes, racism, homophobia and any other form of bigotry is bad. We know this. Doing a review about a racist writer without showing disdain for them is not automatically promoting or justifying it. A lot of people who grew up in that era had racist views and we probably would too if we grew up then also. Likewise they would probably have a change of view if they lived to this present day. Our perspectives are the products of our environment. Just once id like to see a review about a book without the reviewer having to demonstrate their disdain for the authors personal beliefs, even if I myself disagree with them. Unless its the theme of the video keep it neutral.

Why does it mater if the author was racist. The work should stand on it's own separate from the authors views.

Unless the authors personal views on race feature heavily in the book, is it really fair to judge the book because it's author held what we'd consider immoral beliefs.

Dear Dom, judging the work and opinions of others from the past by today's standards is a form of ethnocentrism. Everything before a certain point in time is going to have problems of some type. Hell, I'm reminded of Mr. Popo from Dragon Ball, and that was just the 1980s. Besides, what we do today will be judged as well 75 years from now.

Let it go man, I get it the og writer was a racist. But brining it up every single time you even have a passing mention of the man is excessive. You got to learn to separate the art from the artist.

A dead man being racist literally doesn't matter if his opinions are not present within the particular work I'm enjoying, and more to the point someone's opinions should not effect your ability to enjoy what they make. Authors prior to the 1960s being ignorant racists isn't a detriment so much as it is an unfortunate historical fact one has to accept or ignore while enjoying older media. I'm not going to stop enjoying Fantasia because Walt Disney was an Anti-Semite.

I thought Campbell's novella was 'over-written' and over-packed when I read it about 5 years ago. The fact that it was condensed from a novel makes sense to me.

Thank you for the content warning! I too am a softie and cannot do The Scary or Graphic. *flees*

Will you finish the A series of unfortunate events series

YES YES YES!!!!! FINALLY. I’VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS ONE!!!

There is a nice short story called Things by Peter Watts that somewhat expands the movie.

i've tried to get my brother to watch this movie for years, now he just leaves the room whenever i bring it up

Separate the art from the artist dude.

Horror Express is also loosely based on Who Goes There, though it's clearly not a book adaptation.

I legitimately find ET creepier looking than any form the Thing takes.

Soooooo Dom now you've dipped your toe into horror....Ring Lost In Adaptation?

Fine review but I have to say that the overreacting to a racist author is a bit odd. Half of literature's Works would be vetted if I had to disclude them from my library purely on racism.

I've both read the book and watched the movie and thought I'd add a bit more food for thought from my analysis. The movie is famous for portraying the sociology of a group in distress. It shows how coherence and teamwork can be pushed aside given panic, risk, and isolation. The book sort of portays this too, but I feel it was emphasizing a different theme. The contrast between our terrestrial reasoning and an extraterrestrial reality. The review mentioned Campbell's boring rant about the space ship and how everyone's talks weird. Although true, I think this was entirely on purpose to propose a certain idea. The characters are always using reason. Reason is one of the most human traits there is. It is how we learn and make decisions. The character's in the book took time to use reasoning to figure out the age of alien and how it got to where it was. But more importantly, it was reason that led to the alien's escape. They determined that it was impossible for any advanced creature to survive being frozen. That is just a universal law that we have deducted. There was also discussion of alien diseases, but they again reasoned that such diseases couldn't infect a human. Many organic diseases can't infect a human, how could an alien disease. However, both of these attempts at reason are what led to the team underestimating the thing. It thus came alive and the events of the book play out. There is a part of the story where the characters mention how a man looked at a bird, but could not fly without learning and designing their own way. Our advances as a society are only possible because we use reasoning to make them possible. The monster does not do this. It just imitates the bird. This is all to say that the thing does not reason like we do. It's smart, sure, but it does not "reason." And that's what makes Campbell's version of the monster seem different to me. It isn't just scary because it can hide in plain sight, like in the movie. It's also scary because it lacks reason. It defies reason. And if it defies reason, it defies man itself. The Thing acts as an antithesis to humanity. Sure, the monster in the movie is essentially the same, but the book laid groundwork for the monster to be more. Although, man's ability to reason led them to trust too strongly in earthly laws, it was still reason that stopped the monster. No matter how otherworldly, rules still apply and man can learn them. They learned the new rules and used them to find a test. Reason was applied to the extraterrestrial. And like how we learned to fly, we learned to fight back the monster and win. Am I overanalyzing? Near undoubtedly. But is it still an interesting interpretation? I think so.

With this being based off a short story, I'm rather interested to see what you'd think of Candyman, another adaptation of a horror story done really well. Worth a watch if only for the soundtrack as well.

This was so great. One of my favorite horror films and your interactions with ThatMovieChick are precious and fun. As for half the commenters here, "separate the artist from the art" is not law, and the idea that you MUST ignore a creator's bigotry while discussing their work is simply foolish. It's his prerogative, just as it's yours to ignore it. Go be Devil's Advocate elsewhere if you don't like it.

If this is in the arctic circle north of Norway then them having a bunch of rifles on hand is extremely likely. Fun fact in Norway's island Svalbard it is a legal requirement to have a gun on your person at all times.

This film is not only my favorite John Carpenter film, its my favorite horror film, period. A great cast, excellent cinematography, the tense, subtle score (I LOVE the heartbeat motif), fantastic practical effects, and an unrelenting layer of tension and paranoia capped of with a brilliant bittersweet ending. If Im not mistaken, Carpenter himself considers this film his finest work, and one of his biggest regrets is that it took so long to get popular. At least he lived long enough to see this master class of horror film making get the recognition it deserves.

11:51-11:59 Well if you were to take the 2011 prequel film into consideration, the Thing originally did try an all out ambush while in the Norwegian camp, but after realizing how many times it got torched to death, it’s behavior in the 1982 film is essentially it learning it from its mistakes and trying to be more subtle and stealthy until it was forced by an instinctual reaction.

This movie is a master-class in tension, practical effects and cosmic horror. John Carpenter was way ahead of his time. Great vid guys!