John Carpenter’s The Thing is a quintessential film for any self-respecting horror fan. It boasts a wonderfully claustrophobic setting, a haunting soundtrack, interesting characters, perfect pacing, and special effects that blow away any other 1980s horror film (and perhaps any other 1980s film in general).
With that said, fans can rejoice now that Scream Factory, a distribution offshoot of Shout Factory which specializes in releasing horror and science-fiction films, will be releasing The Thing this September.
The film is based on a 1938 novel by John W. Campbell, Jr. which was previously adapted as The Thing From Another World in 1951. The synopsis for the 1982 version that Scream Factory will be releasing is as follows:
“In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Soon unfrozen, the form-changing alien wreaks havoc, creates terror… and becomes one of them.”
Scream Factory’s release will also include the previously released, John Carpenter’s The Thing: Terror Takes Shape, a making-of documentary of the film with different interviews from the cast and crew.
As for new extras, the release boasts quite a few –
• NEW 2K scan of the Inter-positive supervised and approved by director of photography Dean Cundey• NEW 4.1 created from the original 70MM Six Track Dolby Stereo soundtrack
• NEW Audio Commentary with director of photography Dean Cundey
• NEW The Men of Outpost 31 – interviews with Keith David, Thomas Waites, Peter Maloney and more…
• NEW Assembling and Assimilation – an interview with editor Todd Ramsay
• NEW Behind the Chameleon – interviews with visual effects artists Peter Kuran and Susan Turner, special make-up effects artist Rob Burman and Brian Wade and more….
• NEW Sounds from the Cold – interviews with supervising sound editor David Lewis Yewdall and special sound effects designer Alan Howarth
• NEW Between the Lines – an interview with novelization author Alan Dean Foster
• Audio Commentary by director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell
• John Carpenter’s The Thing: Terror Takes Shape – a documentary on the making of THE THING featuring interviews with John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, special effects make-up designer Rob Bottin, legendary matte artist Albert Whitlock plus members of the cast and crew (80 minutes – SD)
• Outtakes (5 minutes – SD)
• Vintage featurettes from the electronic press kit featuring interviews with John Carpenter, Kurt Russell and Rob Bottin (12 minutes – SD)
• Vintage featurettes – The Making of a Chilling Tale and The Making of THE THING (1982 – 14 minutes – SD)
• Vintage Product Reel – contains a promotional condensed version of the film with additional footage not in the film (19 minutes – SD)
• Vintage Behind-the-Scenes footage (2 minutes – SD)
• Annotated Production Archive – Production Art and Storyboards, Location Scouting, Special Make-up Effects, Post Production (48 minutes – SD)
• Network TV Broadcast version of THE THING (92 minutes – SD)
• Teaser Trailer & Theatrical Trailers (U.S. and German Trailer)
• TV spots & Radio Spots
• Still Gallery (behind-the-scenes photos, posters and lobby cards)
Scream Factory also stated that there are a “few more extras in the pipeline” and that they will “report them in the future when they have been confirmed.”
John Carpenter’s The Thing will be thawing out on Blu-Ray on September 20, 2016.
Source: Facebook