The Thing 4K UHD - Kurt Russell

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "John Carpenter's The Thing")

directed by John Carpenter
USA 1982

John Carpenter's The Thing is both a remake of Howard Hawks' 1951 film of the same name and a re-adaptation of the John W. Campbell Jr. story "Who Goes There?" on which it was based. Carpenter's film is more faithful to Campbell's story than Hawks' version and also substantially more reliant on special effects, provided in abundance by a team of over 40 technicians, including veteran creature-effects artists Rob Bottin and Stan Winston. The film opens enigmatically with a Siberian Husky running through the Antarctic tundra, chased by two men in a helicopter firing at it from above. Even after the dog finds shelter at an American research outpost, the men in the helicopter (Norwegians from an outpost nearby) land and keep shooting. One of the Norwegians drops a grenade and blows himself and the helicopter to pieces; the other is shot dead in the snow by Garry (Donald Moffat), the American outpost captain. American helicopter pilot MacReady (Kurt Russell, fresh from Carpenter's Escape From New York) and camp doctor Copper (Richard Dysart) fly off to find the Norwegian base and discover some pretty strange goings-on. The base is in ruins, and the only occupants are a man frozen to a chair (having cut his own throat) and the burned remains of what could be one man or several men. In a side room, Copper and MacReady find a coffin-like block of ice from which something has been recently cut. That night at the American base, the Husky changes into the Thing, and the Americans learn first-hand that the creature has the ability to mutate into anything it kills.

Excerpt from B+N located HERE

***

Over the years, star Kurt Russell and master of horror John Carpenter have teamed up on a multitude of films (Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from New York to name a few) but of all their collaborations, 1982 s horror/sci-fi amalgam The Thing surely tops the list.

A research team based out in the snowy wilds of Antarctica find themselves besieged by a terrifying, shape-shifting creature which has found its way into their base. When it becomes clear that the creature can take the form of any organism it so chooses, the tension within the team reaches breaking point any one of them could be... The Thing.

Critically panned at the time of its release, John Carpenter's The Thing has rightly gone on to become one of the most celebrated sci-fi horror efforts ever made.

EDescription from the Arrow Blu-ray HERE

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Theatrical Release: June 25th, 1982

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Review: Universal - Region FREE - 4K UHD

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: 4K UHD UK Steelbook: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Universal - Region FREE - 4K UHD
Runtime	1:48:35.091
Video	2.35:1 2160P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 90,449,680,874 bytes Feature: 80,322,594,816 bytes Video Bitrate: 85.50 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate 4K Ultra HD:
Audio	DTS:X Master Audio English 6697 kbps 7.1 / 48 kHz / 6697 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) DTS Audio Spanish 768 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit DTS Audio French 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	English (SDH), Spanish, French, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Universal 2.35:1 2160P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 90,449,680,874 bytes Feature: 80,322,594,816 bytes Video Bitrate: 85.50 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video Edition Details: 4K Ultra HD disc • Audio Commentary by director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell • Documentary - Terror Takes Shape (1:23:53) • Outtakes (4:08) • Trailer (2:04) 2008 Universal - Region FREE - Blu-ray • Audio Commentary by director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell • U-Control - picture-in-picture 4K Ultra HD Release Date: September 7th, 2021 Black 4K Ultra HD Case Chapters 37

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray and 4K UHD captures were taken directly from the respective discs.

ADDITION: Universal 4K UHD (September 2021): Universal's have released John Carpenter's "The Thing" on 4K UHD. We've compared 3 of the DVDs and 3 of the Blu-rays HERE. The Arrow Blu-ray of 2017, now out-of-print, was a huge fan favorite; "4K-restored transfer supervised by Carpenter and director of photography Dean Cundey." It was rated fifth best in our yearly poll HERE. The colors are different here than that lauded 1080P, often richer and darker and the overall 2160 image is magnificent. The grain is super-fine and consistent the UHD resolution adds further layering to the contrast supporting the dark sequences and clarity to an even higher degree. This adds to ever-present the paranoiac mood. Colors - notable red - are deep, even Dr. Blair's (Wilford Brimley) green suspenders stand out not to mention the outstanding effects. After having a 1/2 dozen digital editions of this - one of the most re-watchable films - this is the best home theatre presentation, without a doubt. The bitrate is more than double that of any of the Blu-rays. Please click and see our large screen captures samples below.

It is likely that the monitor you are seeing this review is not an HDR-compatible display (High Dynamic Range) or Dolby Vision, where each pixel can be assigned with a wider and notably granular range of color and light. Our capture software if simulating the HDR (in a uniform manner) for standard monitors. This should make it easier for us to review more 4K UHD titles in the future and give you a decent idea of its attributes on your system. So our captures may not support the exact same colors (coolness of skin tones, brighter or darker hues etc.) as the 4K system at your home. But the framing, detail, grain texture support etc. are, generally, not effected by this simulation representation.

NOTE: 80 more more full resolution (3840 X 2160) 4K UHD captures, in lossless PNG format, for Patrons are available HERE

We have reviewed the following 4K UHD packages to date: The Cat' o'Nine Tails (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (software uniformly simulated HDR), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (software uniformly simulated HDR), Perdita Durango (software uniformly simulated HDR), Django (software uniformly simulated HDR), Fanny Lye Deliver'd (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, (NO HDR applied to disc), Rollerball (software uniformly simulated HDR), Chernobyl (software uniformly simulated HDR), Daughters of Darkness (software uniformly simulated HDR), Vigilante (software uniformly simulated HDR), Tremors (software uniformly simulated HDR), Cinema Paradiso (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Bourne Legacy (software uniformly simulated HDR), Full Metal Jacket (software uniformly simulated HDR), Psycho (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Birds (software uniformly simulated HDR), Rear Window (software uniformly simulated HDR), Vertigo (software uniformly simulated HDR), Spartacus (software uniformly simulated HDR), Jaws (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Invisible Man, (software uniformly simulated HDR), Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (software uniformly simulated HDR), Lucio Fulci's 1979 Zombie (software uniformly simulated HDR),, 2004's Van Helsining (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Shallows (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Bridge on the River Kwai (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Deer Hunter (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Elephant Man (software uniformly simulated HDR), A Quiet Place (software uniformly simulated HDR), Easy Rider (software uniformly simulated HDR), Suspiria (software uniformly simulated HDR), Pan's Labyrinth (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Wizard of Oz, (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Shining, (software uniformly simulated HDR), Batman Returns (software uniformly simulated HDR), Don't Look Now (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Man Who Killed Killed and then The Bigfoot (software uniformly simulated HDR),, Bram Stoker's Dracula (software uniformly simulated HDR), Lucy (software uniformly simulated HDR), They Live (software uniformly simulated HDR), Shutter Island (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Matrix (software uniformly simulated HDR), Alien (software uniformly simulated HDR), Toy Story (software uniformly simulated HDR), A Few Good Men (software uniformly simulated HDR), 2001: A Space Odyssey (HDR caps udated), Schindler's List (simulated HDR), The Neon Demon (No HDR), Dawn of the Dead (No HDR), Saving Private Ryan (simulated HDR and 'raw' captures), Suspiria (No HDR), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (No HDR), The Big Lebowski, and I Am Legend (simulated and 'raw' HDR captures).

The 4K UHD offer a very robust DTS:X (6500 kbps!) audio transfer that fills the room with effect intensity and the steady, haunting, metronome bass beat. Effects overshadow the film's score by the iconic Ennio Morricone (Luna, A Bullet for the General, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, U Turn, Stay As You Are etc. etc.) establishing and supporting the film's relentlessly building intensity. There are other pieces; Billie Holiday's Don't Explain, aptly Stevie Wonder's Superstition and The Four Tops' One Chain Don't Make No Prison. Audio is, like the video, top-shelf augmenting the brilliant presentation perfectly. There are subtitle in English (SDH), French and Spanish - we presume other geographic editions will have appropriate subtitles to suit. Like all 4K UHD discs it is region FREE.

The only extras on the 4K UHD disc - are the re-listen-able commentary by director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell from a dozen years ago as well as the, previously supplement-utilized, Michael Matessino's 1998, 83-minute, documentary Terror Takes Shape with a dozen of the cast and crew input. It is excellent having been on DVDs back 20+ years ago. There are 4-minutes of, interesting, if meager quality, outtakes and a poor quality trailer. Universal include there old single-layered, region FREE, Blu-ray as a second disc with only the same commentary. It has the 2008 file dates:

Universal's 4K UHD release of John Carpenter's "The Thing" is a must-own for new adopters - even if to compare to the out-of-print Arrow Blu-ray... seeing for yourself the resolution increase and how it effects the viewing presentation. Colors can be debated ad-nauseam, this looks 'right'. In my opinion it is a highly notable upgrade and the film's status continues to elevate having been initially criticized for the excessive special effects, no women in the cast and being hindered by being released at the same time as, the family film, Spielberg's E.T. Howard Hawks died 5 years before Carpenter's remake and I often wonder what his reaction would have been to this. There was a prequel also called "The Thing", not a remake, made in 2011 reviewed on Blu-ray HERE. The story opens three days before the Carpenter film and moves forward so that the conclusion of this tale dovetails with the opening of the 1982 production. It's okay but forgettable never to reach the status of this one. The price of this 4K UHD is another enticement as it is very reasonable. There is immense value here for fans of John Carpenter's "The Thing". Go for it.