The Thing from Another World: Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks

Confirming the old joke that Howard Hawks could direct any genre he damn well wanted, The Thing from Another World is a tense, claustrophobic, and thoroughly enjoyable horror film. Following a stranded Air Force crew at an Arctic research station, the film follows their reactions when they discover nothing less than an authentic flying saucer and its humanoid occupant. They bring the Thing into the base for further study. But through an unfortunate accident it is re-awakened and manages to break free from its bonds. The Thing then goes on a killing spree seeking the one thing that provides it with sustenance: blood! Two things really stood out to me when I watched this film. First, it was fascinating to see Hawksian archetypes and tropes (like split-second, overlapping dialogue and the Unit of Men as a tight-knit community nigh impenetrable to outsiders) applied to a horror movie. Second, the film carries what can be construed as an anti-science disposition. The head scientist makes it very clear in no uncertain tones that he is willing to sacrifice everyone at the base in order to "make contact" with the Thing for scientific purposes. The head scientist even commits the Hawksian cardinal sin: he betrays the community. This suspicion towards science in a sense reflects the sentiments that much of the American populace felt in the wake of World War Two and the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Thing from Another World is therefore, much like other great sci-fi films, a kind of time capsule of American society.

8/10