Discovering The Thing From Another World. The True Sequel To John Carpenter's Classic.

Although John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) wasn’t a critical or box-office success, when it first came out in 1982, over the decades, it has become a cult favorite, and has received reappraisal by mainstream critics.

With its foreboding tone, startling and stylish visuals, deliberate pacing, and terrifying special effects, The Thing, is now considered John Carpenter’s greatest film.

With its belated success on cable and home video, there has been talk of producing a sequel to The Thing, since the 1990s, including Return of the Thing, a four-hour miniseries, and a direct sequel to the Carpenter movie, for the Sci Fi network. It was to be produced by Frank Darabont, the acclaimed director of The Shawshank Redemption, and The Mist, and written by David Leslie Johnson McGoldrick, of The Conjuring franchise.

But the project was shelved, partly due to budget concerns, and Universal Pictures decided to go for a big screen feature, unimaginatively called The Thing, a 2011 prequel set at the Norwegian camp featured in John Carpenter’s original.

But before that, a sequel was made, taking place mere hours after the events of Carpenter’s film.

The Thing From Another World, written by Chuck Pfarrer, was released by Dark Horse Comics, and is, arguably, the only true sequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing.

The graphic novel begins after the destruction of the U.S. Outpost 31, where the events of the film took place, by the shape-shifting extraterrestrial creature.

The only survivors are MacReady and Childs. MacReady is found and picked up by the crew of a Japanese whaling ship, and is held captive after a hysterical outburst. But soon after, he escapes, and tries to find out whether he is human, or just another version of the thing.

Pfarrer, a self-avowed student of Carpenter’s original film, writes a tense story in a hard-boiled, straightforward style, that propels the reader headlong into a series of set-pieces that never let up. He also ingeniously gets around the problem of dealing with the ending of Carpenter’s original, which basically painted the story into a corner.

In the novel, Pfarrer slowly reveals what happened to MacReady and Childs, and introduces a new complication that could have apocalyptic consequences.

The Thing From Another World is a dream come true for fans of Carpenter’s original. It picks up right after the events of the film, the characters remain true to their portrayals in the original, and Pfarrer's tone and style capture, to a large extent, the mood of the original.

The only caveat is that the headlong pace and grim tone, leave little room for character development, as this is pure story, with no real revelations about the main players. But this too, it could be argued, follows Carpenter’s original approach, which stuck to basic survival psychology, rather than delve deep into the minds of its characters.

With great artwork by John B. Higgins, The Thing From Another World is a treat for fans of the original, and it serves as a worthy sequel to Carpenter’s film.

Carpenter himself has endorsed the graphic novel on many occasions, to the extent that, according to him, if he ever got a chance to make a sequel to The Thing, he would closely follow Pfarrer's story.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2022.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. He is also the host of The Dark Fantastic Podcast. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @DFantasticPodcast

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Book Review: BLADE RUNNER 2: THE EDGE OF HUMAN. By K. W. Jeter. *** and a 1\2 out of *****

Long before the official movie sequel to Blade Runner (1982) was released in theaters as Blade Runner 2049 (2017), another official sequel, this time in the form of a novel, was released in 1995 as Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human, written by K. W. Jeter.

It's a curious creation, partly because Jeter wrote the book as a sequel not just to the 1982 movie directed by Ridley Scott, but also to Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? on which the film was based. This makes for an interesting if slightly challenging read, as their are several differences between the original novel and the 1982 film, in characters, plot, and even intent. But Jeter mostly succeeds in marrying the two universes of the book and film together, by working out the myriad dangling plotlines of both stories, and explaining away several plot holes from the film, one of which - that Deckard was supposed to hunt down six replicants, not five - the whole plot of Jeter's book hinges on.

As a sequel to Blade Runner (1982), the book works fairly well, picking up shortly after the events of the film and adding a number of entertaining twists and surprise appearances by characters that supposedly died in the film. As a sequel to Philip K. Dick's book, it is slightly less effective, as the tone of Dick's original novel clashes considerably with the tone and story of Ridley Scott's film. The book also slows down near to a halt near the middle, with a couple of jarring out of character instances for Deckard, but it picks up again near the end, delivering a grand, fiery finale, with a terrific and haunting final twist that is sure to please fans of the film.

For fans of both Dick's book and Scott's 1982 movie adaptation, this comes highly recommended, as it features a plethora of fascinating details and twists, and pushes the story in a complex and compelling direction. But newcomers and non-fans should stay away.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2020.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon.

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Movie Review: BLAIR WITCH (2016) - *** out of four

Released without much fanfare, Blair Witch (2016), the official sequel to The Blair Witch Project (1999) - let's all pretend Blair Witch 2 (2000) never happened -  is destined to become a polarizing film. If, like myself, you aren't a huge fan of the original, you'll probably find it to be a slick, compelling, and arguably superior sequel/retread of the original; on the other hand, if you are a die-hard fan of the original, and there are millions of you out there, it could be seen as an unnecessary repeat performance of the best aspects of the original.

To me, Blair Witch blows the original out of the water. Director and genre stalwart Adam Wingard, along with writer Simon Barrett, deliver a movie that is tense, fun, energetic, and deliciously scary, with the always reliable Wingard directing with an ebullience that was missing from the original

Whereas the original was an occasionally tedious exercise in cinema-verite, with hysterical characters and an annoying lead, this sequel features characters that are more fleshed out and much more likable. Yes, it isn't as gritty, and there isn't much here that is as startlingly original, but it is a better movie overall, with tight direction, an inventive script, and a terrifying, if slightly over-the-top, ending. It also has the advantage of working well as a stand-alone film, thanks to Barrett's clever script.

If you're looking for a fun, scary, and fast-paced "found footage" horror film, Blair Witch is for you.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2017