10 minutes of Terror-The Thing

Its back! And its in a new form!
I've been wanting to go back to 10 Minutes of Terror for a while. But to be frank, I ran out of good opening scenes I wanted to talk about. So I figured I'd expand 10 Minutes of Terror to include horror sequences I just damn well love.
This gives me more stuff to find on youtube too.
This also means there will be spoilers. So Beware. BEWARE!!!!

Anyways, I figured I'd start the ball rolling with a scene from one of my all time favorite horror flicks, John Carpenter's The Thing.

If you have not seen The Thing, go rent The Thing....right now. Seriously. Go put it on your Netflix and watch ASAP. I believe The Thing is one of the best monster movies ever made. Its text book perfection in gore and paranoia. In fact, its the paranoia part that gets to me more than the gore part.

A quick synopsis; A group of scientists working in the Antarctic encounter a really REALLY fucked up shape shifting life form. It gets lose in their facilities and pretty much all Hell brakes lose. The thing hides itself amongst the scientists and soon you're not sure who is really who they say they are. Paranoia, accusations, Wilford Brimley, and some of the most creative and gory monster scene's ensue.

One of my all time favorite moments in The Thing is the blood testing scene. Kurt Russel's character, MacReady decides to take matters into his own hands after they lost members of their team to the thing in gruesome ways. He finds a way to test everyone's blood in order to see who is human and who is not.
Let's watch, shall we?



What I love so much about this scene was how wonderfully tense it all begins. The shots on everyone are tight and unrelenting. The pacing is slow. The sound is silent with the exception of some incidental noise and their heavy breathing. Also, no one really blinks in this scene which makes it even more tense for me. I found myself holding my breath through the whole beginning.
Then BAM! All hell breaks lose, the monster is on the ceiling, and before you know it, Window's is getting his face chomped. I also love the moment where the chairs lift up and the other team mates are screaming and desperately trying to get away a monster that could slide down the chairs and onto their tied up bodies. Its like the movie embodied my feelings of sitting next to the crazy homeless guy on the train and put it on the screen.
I would like to point out, The Thing was made way WAY before CGI. And the special effects still stand the test of time. That thing is terrifying! I'm sure some men could argue its scary because it looks like a giant Vagina Dentata on legs, and well I will admit, that is pretty terrifying. But still, its puppetry, make up, and animatronics at its finest. If they do a remake, I can't even imagine how a CGI monster could be as scary as this.

There are many other wonderful scenes in The Thing, namely the one where the severed head sprouts legs and walks off. Its very classic John Carpenter and a gem of a film.
Check it out!
Also, if you have any films to recommend for 10 Minutes of Terror, opening sequences or otherwise, lay em on me!