Consider a range of critical accounts of the film. These should include both contemporary and reflectionist accounts amongst others

Kuipers' design was certainly more advanced than a man in a suit. But Bottin was reluctant to join, especially when you consider that Carpenter already had a working design for the creature plus a mechanical effects specialist in Roy Arbogast. He also did not want to simply carry out someone else's creation.

So Carpenter asked Bottin for his own concepts about the creature. At first, Carpenter was rather skeptical about Bottin's outlandish ideas.

According to Bottin, The process of creating the effects for the film took just over a year. It began with concept sketches and storyboards, with the key figure in this area being Mike Ploog. He was instrumental in defining the look of the film, storyboarding many of the effects scenes, and nearly all of the live-action photography.

Ploog was actually hired two months before Bottin, and was largely given a free hand during these early stages. He began working on his own, and checked in with Carpenter every so often for approval. Bottin and Ploog got their inspiration from the E.C. horror comics of the 1950s, and the vivid horror and science-fiction magazines from the 1930s. But the ideas that they came up with were always going to be difficult to put into effect. Carpenter often voiced his concerns about the effects being achievable. Although Bottin was optimistic, he and Ploog had to rethink some of the shots, transforming effects that were clearly impossible into shots that were merely extremely difficult to pull off.

The special effects were developed by effects artist Rob Bottin and storyboard artist Mike Ploog. It was the effects team of Rob Bottin that finally brought the creature to life on the screen. He was also assisted by Stan Winston, who was called in to help with the dog kennel scene. The various manifestations of the Thing were first sculpted in clay. Molds were then taken from the sculptures, and then foam latex pieces were made. The necessary mechanics were then created to bring the Thing to life. hand puppets marionettes film reversing radio controls wires hydraulics cables There was an odd list of ingredients used in some of the gory effects. heated bubble gum strawberry jam mayonnaise cream corn.

The dog kennel scene was the first major special effect sequence in the movie. Other directors may have chosen to make this a more subtle scene, hidden in shadows. But Carpenter was trying for something different, and this scene hit the audience like a shotgun blast.

The Bottin team was responsible for most of the effects in this sequence. But there was one major component that the team did not perform. This was the mutated dog that snarls at the men.

Bottin had already worked on The Howling, and he was getting quite sick of creating mechanical dogs, so he handed the assignment over to Stan Winston. Winston has since become one of the greatest special effects artists of our time, with films like Aliens and Jurassic Park under his belt. Many people do not realise he participated in the making of "The Thing".

Before Winston was recalled for the scene, production assistant Mentor Huebner had prepared concept sketches for the sequence. However, new sketches were drawn by Winston and two members of his crew. The bizzare dog creature, that is seen near the end of the sequence, was designed by Winston. It was affectionately called the "chicken dog". The first step was to sculpt the creature in clay. An articulated puppet was then created based on the clay sculpture, consisting of internal cables that would determine the movements of the head and neck.

Even though this specific task was given to Winston and his team, Bottin was still responsible for the remainder of the kennel sequence. The dog kennel scene required a number of mechanical dogs and dog puppets, most of which were still handled by Bottin's team.

During the film itself, there is one glaring fault that has always caught my attention. There is a scene where a whole heap of thick tentacles come oozing across the floor from out of the alien dog. If you look closely, you can see the holes in the ground where the tentacles have come from. This special effect was obviously performed using "film-reversing". The tentacles would have been pulled into the floor and the film reversed to make it appear as if they were coming out of the transformed dog.

One of the most startling effects in the movie was the death of Norris. He is apparently stricken with a heart attack and Dr Copper attempts to revive him with a cardiac defibrillator. Norris' chest splits open to reveal a huge set of jaws which slice Copper's arms off. The effects were achieved using the following techniques: Norris' body was a fiberglass dummy Copper was doubled by a stand-in who had false hands that could be readily bitten off Norris' head was pushed off by an off-screen technician holding a long rod The spider head actually sprouts thin-gauge, radio-controlled aluminium tubing The walking movement was achieved by attaching the legs to wheels which propelled the head across the floor As the wheels turned faster - the legs thrashed more violently

A large portion of this scene was done in real time. The palmer "puppet" was operated by several off-screen technicians. The puppet and the two other men (Childs and Garry) were tied to the couch. Hydraulic machinery was used to push the couch up and down. The puppet controls were manipulated by the technicians and it changed appearance accordingly.

The storyboard design of this sequence showed Blair's hand plunging into Garry's face and up into his skull. This was an example of a special effect design that would have to be redone to make it easier to film.

Rather than attempting something that may not be easily achieved, Bottin merely attached pliable latex appliances to Donald Moffit's cheeks, giving the appearance of stretched flesh. Incidentally, the hand used in the final scene is Bottins.

Here is a story that is very familiar. ( A similar thing happened during the filming of Day of the Dead ). Most of the live action photography is normally completed before the special effects are filmed.

According to Bottin,

"I don't think anyone should do the effects while they're shooting live action. It's disruptive, and there's a lot of actors on pay standing around waiting for you to get your gooey boogers right." 

There were exceptions to this rule. Parts of the kennel sequence were filmed during principle photography, as were scenes involving autopsies of the Thing and its victims. But when the special effects were filmed at a later stage, stunt and character doubles were used rather than the real actors.

Bottin had originally planned to use real animal organs purchased from a slaughterhouse for these scenes, but latex intestines were used after one unfortunate memory lapse on the part of effects producer Erik Jensen.

For the characters in this film, the destruction of the monster is just as important as being able to figure out which members of the team are infected with the extraterrestrial menace. Carpenter created a complex web of paranoia where trust is completely nonexistent, and offered a unique study of the conflictive relationships generated among the group of men. At the same time, the grotesque transformations of the human body showcased in the film make explicit, in true Cronenbergian fashion, the fragility of the flesh, while the idea of a highly contagious terror functions as a metaphor for AIDS.

Because of its distinctive setting and bizarre title creature, The Thing could easily be Carpenter's most challenging and technically complex film to date.  However, no difficulty was impossible to overcome by Carpenter and his crew. The desolate Antarctic landscape and the claustrophobic base are incredibly convincing, the design of the monster remains one of the most frightening creatures in cinema history, and the gruesome and extremely realistic special effects continue to be unmatched even in today's era of seemingly unbound digital artistry. But most importantly, Carpenter's direction may be the finest in his entire career. In order to enhance the realism of the narrative, Carpenter uses very simple camera setups and elegant composition that exploits the entire extension of the Panavision widescreen frame. So, for example, in a scene that takes place in the infirmary, two characters menacingly surround the hero who is positioned at the center of the frame, while the outermost left hand side of the frame shows the hand of a character hiding a scalpel. This image dramatically intensifies the feelings of paranoia and claustrophobia that are crucial to the film. Unfortunately, at the time of its original release, The Thing's critical and box office reception was very poor. However in subsequent years The Thing has managed to find a second life in video, where not only it has been rediscovered by audiences in general, but it has also become a prime film for academic discussion.  The current reassessment of The Thing stands as a solid argument for considering John Carpenter as a visionary director ahead of his own time.