10 Movies To Watch if You Love 'The Thing'

Despite being poorly received when it was first released, The Thing has come to be beloved as a horror classic, a story about isolation, distrust, and paranoia. Set in Antarctica, the film follows a group of researchers as they're hunted down by a shape-shifting alien that hunts down and kills people, then takes on their appearance. The movie was directed by John Carpenter, a horror icon himself, and was based on the novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr.

Although The Thing is in a league of its own, some horror films have struck a similar tone. While horror movies often feature characters making less-than-intelligent decisions, The Thing and its contemporaries are an exception, with intelligent characters doing their best to survive in impossible situations.

The Thing

Release Date

June 25, 1982

Runtime

109 minutes

10

'The Hateful Eight' (2015)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

In Quentin Tarantino’s Western The Hateful Eight, set just after the Civil War during a blizzard in the harsh Wyoming winter, bounty hunter John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive prisoner Daisy (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who are handcuffed together until he can turn her in and collect his bounty, encounter another bounty hunter (Samuel L. Jackson) and a man who claims he’s a sheriff. The group shelters from the blizzard, and no one is able to trust each other.

On the surface, The Thing and The Hateful Eight have little in common, but their similarities aren’t hard to find. Both take place in cold, snowy settings, and both deal with paranoid characters who don’t know who they can trust. And, of course, both star Russell, and both were scored by prolific film composer Ennio Morricone. The Hateful Eight isn’t Tarantino’s best work, but it's still worth watching for fans looking for a similar question of trust to The Thing.

The Hateful Eight

Release Date

December 25, 2015

Runtime

188 Minutes

9

'The Thing' (2011)

Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.

The 2011 version of The Thingis a prequel to the original film, which follows the crew of the first facility, a group of Norwegian researchers, who discover an alien spacecraft buried under the ice in Antarctica, along with the frozen body of an alien which briefly survived a crash 100,000 years prior. The researchers are joined by paleontologist Kate ( Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the only one among them who truly grasps the danger they might be in.

The events before The Thing have been the subject of much fascination and speculation, and the 2011 prequel sought to give fans some answers. The film is often assumed to be a remake, and while it technically isn’t, it might as well be—it retreads much of the same territory as the original film and has the same atmosphere. The CGI effects don’t come close to the practical effects of the original, however.

The Thing

Release Date

October 14, 2011

Runtime

103 Minutes

Director

Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.

Writers

Eric Heisserer

8

'The Void' (2016)

Directed by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski

The Void follows a cop who escorts a patient to an understaffed hospital, where he then has a seizure and a strange vision. Shortly after, the two men, as well as the hospital’s other patients and staff, are trapped inside by the hooded members of a cult, who believe the hospital is a gateway to evil. Soon, they’re also attacked by strange and horrific monsters, forcing them to fight to survive.

The Void has been described as a love letter to John Carpenter, and his influence is certainly clear, as well as that of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and classic ‘80s horror. Both The Thing and The Void feature isolated settings and, most notably, terrifying, other-worldly creatures brought to life with practical effects—and The Void also has plenty of body horror on top of it. Both films also have ambiguous endings.

The Void

Release Date

September 22, 2016

Runtime

90 minutes

Director

Jeremy Gillespie, Steven Kostanski

Writers

Steven Kostanski, Jeremy Gillespie

7

'Leviathan' (1989)

Directed by George P. Cosmatos

Geologist Steven Beck (Peter Weller) joins an undersea mining expedition in Leviathan, and as the crew investigates the remains of a sunken Soviet ship that disappeared under strange circumstances, they discover a strange creature living in it. The creature is revealed to be the result of a failed genetic experiment, and it begins to stalk and kill the members of the crew—and some of its victims mutate into monsters themselves.

While the creatures in The Thing and Leviathan have different origins, they pose a similar threat and have a similar effect on their victims, causing disturbing mutations and gruesome deaths—depicted with impressive practical effects in both films, done here by Stan Winton. Leviathan also has some similarities to Alien, another sci-fi/horror classic, and is just one of a number of movies released in the late ‘80s with an underwater setting.

Leviathan

Release Date

March 17, 1989

Director

George P. Cosmatos

6

'Splinter' (2008)

Directed by Toby Wilkins

Despite intending to spend some time out in nature, trouble with their tire leads young couple Polly (Jill Wagner) and Seth (Paulo Costanzo) to spend the night in a motel instead in Splinter—but before they make it there, they’re carjacked. At a nearby gas station, the group is attacked by a parasite which manifests as black splinter-like spikes and takes over its host’s body, forcing everyone to work together to defeat the parasite and survive.

Like The Thing, Splinter features a creature that takes over a human body, as well as characters who are intelligent and have good development but are in a situation that’s difficult to escape. And while The Thing also features a unique creature design that’s unmatched to this day, Splinter is full of disturbing gore and unsettling body horror. The parasite in Splinter is relentless—even when it seems like it should be beaten, it’s not.

Splinter

Release Date

October 31, 2008

Runtime

82 Minutes

Director

Toby Wilkins

Writers

Ian Shorr, Kai Barry, Toby Wilkins

5

'Event Horizon' (1997)

Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

Set in the 2040s, Event Horizon follows a rescue crew sent to investigate a research ship that has reappeared after having been missing for seven years, led by Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) with the help of its designer, Dr. Weir (Sam Neill). They eventually learn the ship traveled between dimensions, including to some truly horrific places with equally horrific repercussions, and Miller and his crew are at risk of falling prey to the same thing that killed the original crew.

Although Neill is best known for starring in Jurassic Park, his career also includes a number of unsettling horror films, with Event Horizon among the most memorable of them—while it wasn’t well-received at the time, it has become a cult classic. It’s a dark film that only gets more graphic and disturbing as it continues, despite some over-the-top moments, and the footage of what happened to the ship’s crew is particularly unsettling. Equally unsettling is Neill’s performance.

Event Horizon

Release Date

August 15, 1997

Runtime

96 minutes

Director

Paul W.S. Anderson

Writers

Philip Eisner

4

'The Mist' (2007)

Directed by Frank Darabont

After their Maine home is damaged in a storm in The Mist, David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his young son, Billy (Nathan Gamble), head into town for supplies, and a thick fog descends upon the town with terrifying creatures living within it, trapping David and other townspeople inside a grocery store. The survivors then split into two groups—those trying to survive and those who view the attack as atonement for their sins.

King’s work is often adapted into films with mixed results, but The Mist is among the better ones. Both The Thing and The Mist combine frightening, otherworldly monsters with psychological horror—the characters of The Mist are trapped in a single building, and their paranoia and fear get the better of them, commenting on how people treat outsiders. The film also has a very different and much bleaker ending than the novella.

The Mist

Release Date

November 21, 2007

Runtime

126 minutes

Director

Frank Darabont

Writers

Frank Darabont

3

'Cube' (1997)

Directed by Vincenzo Natali

In Cube, a group of seven strangers awaken and find they’re trapped in a room shaped like a cube that’s part of other interconnected cubes that form one large one, many of which are rigged with brutal lethal traps, and the group has no memory of how they got there. The group works together to make their way through the cube without falling prey to its traps. The movie was followed up with two sequels.

Cube is an escape-room movie from before escape-room movies were cool. It deals with one’s survival instincts and the way they can be at odds with working alongside others to help them, something The Thing touches on as its characters become more paranoid and concerned with their own survival. And although the strangers of Cube work together, they have their moments of distrust, which only serves to make their already unenviable situation even worse.

Cube

Release Date

September 11, 1998

Runtime

90 minutes

Director

Vincenzo Natali

Writers

Vincenzo Natali, Graeme Manson, André Bijelic

2

'10 Cloverfield Lane' (2016)

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg

10 Cloverfield Lane follows Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who survives a car accident and awakens in an underground bunker with two men, Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.) and survivalist Howard (John Goodman). Howard refuses to let her leave and tells her the surface has become uninhabitable and the air unbreathable, but it’s unclear if he’s telling the truth—and eventually, Michelle hatches a plan to find out for herself and attempts to escape.

Both The Thing and 10 Cloverfield Lane deal with the theme of trust—while in The Thing, no one knows who’s telling the truth about who they really are, in 10 Cloverfield Lane, Michelle can’t be sure her captor is telling the truth about the state of the Earth, plus both films have a feeling of isolation. Although it’s a sequel to found-footage alien horror Cloverfield, the two films are drastically different in style and tone.

10 Cloverfield Lane

Release Date

March 10, 2016

Runtime

103 Minutes

Director

Dan Trachtenberg

Writers

Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken, Damien Chazelle

1

'Alien' (1979)

Directed by Ridley Scott

In sci-fi/horror classic Alien, the crew of a commercial starship is awakened from their cryo-sleep at the halfway point of their trip in the year 2122 after receiving a distress call from an alien ship. While investigating the ship, the crew discovers a nest of eggs and inadvertently transfers an alien back to their own ship. The film’s success has led to a whole Alien franchise, from sequels set later to prequels detailing how the alien came to be.

Alien, like The Thing, follows a trapped crew being stalked and hunted by an extraterrestrial creature, the key difference being the way it presents itself. While the alien in The Thing disguises itself among the crew, it’s unmistakable—and horrifying—in Alien, thanks to the unique design by artist H. R. Giger. Both films also masterfully build tension and dread, and while The Thing took some time to earn praise, Alien consistently ranks among the best sci-fi films ever made.

Alien

Release Date

June 22, 1979

Runtime

117 Minutes

Writers

Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett

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