From the producers of Dawn of the Dead comes the chilling prelude to John Carpenter’s cult classic film. When paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) travels to an isolated outpost in Antarctica for the expedition of a lifetime, she joins an international team that unearths a remarkable discovery. Their elation quickly turns to fear as they realize that their experiment has freed a mysterious being from its frozen prison. Paranoia spreads like an epidemic as a creature that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish in this spine-tingling thriller.
For thoughts on The Thing (2011), please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:
Video Quality
The Thing (2011) gets a decent Blu-Ray courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment that mostly represents the film well, but it displays some of the weaknesses often found with the encodes this particular label delivers. The transfer is sourced from a solid older master provided by Universal Pictures that appears nearly identical to the preexisting Universal release. The thing is, the previous Universal release uses a dated VC-1 codec, while the new Mill Creek releases offers up the preferred AVC codec. That would lead you to believe that Mill Creek would be a subtle improvement, but their weakness with encoding makes this release a bit of a wash.
The transfer itself holds up well in terms of avoiding any digital damage or showing an overly processed aesthetic that would rob the picture of some of its rich detail. The presentation provides some fine textural detail around the base and within the special effects (or what little has not been colored over with CGI). There is not a lot of room for rich colors in this world, but the hues on display are decently saturated. Skin tones look pretty good, but the presentation gets the weakest when it comes to the black levels. The disc experiences some banding and black crush in the darkest moments which keeps it from being an improvement over the Universal release. That being said, Mill Creek Entertainment has provided a Blu-Ray disc that gets the job done well enough until maybe one day this gets a 4K UHD upgrade.
Audio Quality
Mill Creek Entertainment brings us this new Blu-Ray with a lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix that is perfectly representative of the film. The dialogue comes though clearly without being stepped on by the score or sound effects. Pertinent information stays primarily in the center channels with some stretch into the side speakers. Ambient details are delineated nicely and given a dynamic placement throughout the speakers. The sounds of the alien being, along with some of the weather effects, bring nuanced life to the rear speakers. The movie features an appropriate score which sounds great within the mix. This is a track that suits the material quite accurately. A truly pleasing experience. There are optional English SDH subtitles provided.
Special Features
Mill Creek Entertainment has provided The Thing (2011) with an optional sleek new SteelBook available exclusively at Wal-Mart that is truly lovely in person. The case comes with a removable plastic slipcase that is black on the front with clear lettering saying “It’s Not Human. Yet.” followed by the film’s title. The artwork underneath is a colorful depiction of “The Thing” halfway between alien and human form, and the rear features a picture of a husky running away from a burning base with a helicopter departing in the air. The interior sports a still of the characters in the cave/bunker doing some research. Video of the SteelBook can be found above.
- Audio Commentary: Director Matthijs van Heijningen and producer Eric Newman provide a pretty solid commentary track in which they discuss what they wanted to accomplish with this version of the story, the condensed turnaround from greenlight to production, finding the right performers for these roles, having a level of reverence for the Carpenter movie while functioning as its own thing, how they accomplished certain sequences and more.
- The Thing Evolves: A 14-minute featurette in which the cast and creative team discuss the hesitance to tackle this property, their reverence for the original material, what makes this story something worth exploring and more. While a lot of this is fairly innocuous, you do get some good shots of the production throughout.
- Fire & Ice: A five-minute look at some of the stunts in the film that involve flamethrowers and more.
- Deleted/Extended Scenes: There are seven scenes of unused material totaling nine minutes provided here.
- Trailer: The two-and-a-half minute trailer is provided here.
- Who Goes There?: A new four-minute featurette is provided here in which a narrator gives an overview of the history behind The Thing from the publication of the original novella to the various adaptations before delving into some of the backgrounds of the characters and performers in this iteration.
- What Goes There?: Another new three-minute featurette which takes the same approach towards detailing the journey towards the screenplay, the special effects, the music and more.
Final Thoughts
The Thing (2011) is a serviceable horror movie that could have been a lot better if the studio had just left things alone a bit. Although this is a prequel, the structure is pretty close to the original, only with a modern cast that includes some very talented performers. Where the film loses some of its magic is when it comes to the special effects, which have been covered up with unconvincing CGI instead of allowing the rich practical effects to flourish. The film is still a pretty decent watch, but you do get bummed out knowing that we could have had something much cooler if the studio wouldn’t have been chasing a modern audience.
Mill Creek Entertainment has delivered a new Blu-Ray featuring a pretty good A/V presentation similar to the previous Universal Blu-Ray, only now you have the option of a cool SteelBook and a couple of inconsequential new special features. If you don’t own this one yet, this is a fine release until the film gets a 4K upgrade. Recommended
The Thing (2011) is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray SteelBook exclusively at Wal-Mart.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Mill Creek Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.