Over 40 years after its release, John Carpenter’s stylish and suspenseful THE THING still boasts some of the most shockingly grotesque and fiendishly inventive monster effects ever put on screen, courtesy of master makeup artist Rob Bottin, putting much of today’s CGI to shame. Frequent Carpenter collaborator Kurt Russell stars as R.J. MacReady, leading a rapidly dwindling and ever-more paranoid group of Antarctic-based scientists in their fight against a shape-shifting alien that can assume any animal form, at times combining different species’ parts into some gruesome improvisations. Carpenter’s lunatic vision, accompanied by Ennio Morricone’s pulsating synth score, demands to be seen on the big screen. (AFI)