John Carpenter's The Thing is an awesome horror movie, one of the few in the genre I truly enjoy watching. The story follows an alien life form that can imitate organisms that it kills, including the ten (approximately) men of an Antarctic research center. As the alien slowly kills the men one by one, you yourself feel the terror and uncertainty of the situation. You suspect everyone else of being the alien, out to kill you. The biggest praise I can give this movie is that it held me in its grip the entire time. My involvement in the plot and my psychological presence in the research station itself made it one of the scariest horror films I've ever seen. Some of the technical aspects of this film are equally fantastic. I loved the camera movements and shot compositions; hallway sequences were always incredibly well-choreographed and tense. The special effects and make-up were phenomenal. While not utterly convincing or realistic, they were very impressive in their own rights in concept/vision.
However, a lot of the acting and dialogue was excessively unrealistic and stylized. The colors were drab and a lot of shots felt really flat. I remember liking it so much more the first time I saw it, probably because I had no idea what I was getting involved in. It doesn't hold well on repeat viewings, I don't think. Also, the alien spaceship in the beginning was really gimmicky. And dated. In fact, much of the movie is dated--like the chess computer game, the cell simulation/prediction, and the special effects in general. Still, well worth watching.IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0084787/