Protagonist Reactions

The one overwhelming response to the Arness Thing that the audience sees in the Hawks film is a jovial lightheartedness. When the creature is brought inside, trapped in an ice block, it is referred to as "that boogeyman in a gig of ice." Upon hearing from Dr. Carrington of the vegetative nature of the alien, the newsman Ned Scott quips that it sounds like "some form of super carrot." When Carrington reminds him that the "carrot" is able to build a starship, Scotty changes his assessment to "an intellectual carrot." He then says that his readers are going to think Carrington is "stuffed absolutely clean full of wild blueberry muffins," and everyone in the room laughs and chuckles -- this while a severed hand lies in their midst. After the men have searched the compound for the released Arness Thing, Scotty again steps in with his comic relief: "So few people can boast that they’ve lost a flying saucer and a man from Mars all in the same day. Bunch of butterfingers." Everyone around him chuckles in response.

It is interesting to note that before and after every engagement with the Arness Thing the humans are always joking. As the men approach the greenhouse door, Captain Hendry tells Scotty to wait elsewhere. Scotty insists that he should stay in order to get a picture of the creature. When the Captain relents, the other men smirk and quip, "That’ll cost you a drink, Scotty." Scotty smiles and answers, "I’ll buy him a beer." This is very poor storytelling from the standpoint of horror fiction. The men have just learned that the creature was last seen in the greenhouse where it killed two scientists, hanging their bodies from the ceiling with their throats slit. Yet, there is no apparent tension in the men as they get closer to the greenhouse and the Arness Thing. They are as cordial and happy-go-lucky as ever. Then, after the brief glimpse of the monster through the doorway, they start barricading the door and upon hearing that Scotty didn’t get his picture, Hendry asks him, "Do you want me to open it again?" So we have another attempt at humor, even though Hendry has supposedly just glimpsed the two bodies hanging in the greenhouse. Unlike Garry in ‘82 film who shows visible emotion when Bennings is killed, there is absolutely no expression of sorrow or grief seen in Hawks’ movie. None of the survivors ever demonstrate any apparent sympathy on behalf of their dead comrades. So much for people being impacted by their creature foe.

Before the second run-in with the Arness Thing, we see MacPherson playing solitaire and Nikki going around offering coffee to people. One would never guess that an alien monster is trying to destroy them, especially after Scotty asks, "What happens when our boyfriend gets lonely and starts strolling around?" Apparently the reporter is unimpressed with the threat of an alien creature ("our boyfriend") breaking out of its makeshift barricade in order to kill more humans for their blood. After the second, fiery confrontation Hendry and Scotty go to the radio room and direct the operator to tell Anchorage that they’re "in bad shape." They then immediately start to joke about Scotty’s hair or lack thereof. They may be "in bad shape" but nobody seems overly concerned about it.

Before the final battle, there is an extraordinary number of lame attempts at humor. Nikki and Hendry joke about getting married. Scotty wants to be in the hallway to see the final battle, but Hendry at first doesn’t like the idea. So Scotty jokes about writing Hendry "a very good obituary" when he gets to see the fight. Hendry in turn chuckles. When a Geiger counter starts to register some activity, one would think that the people on the screen would start to tense up as the expected battle comes closer. Alas, the audience never gets to experience any mounting tension because one of the men loudly squawks over the radio, "Come on, Mr. Martian, and get some nice Scotch blood, 100 percent proof, nothing like it for making babies," and everyone on the screen laughs. It is pretty bad when a "horror" film has everyone making light of their supposedly desperate situation as well as scoffing at the great danger the world is supposedly facing. It seems that Howard Hawks wanted so much not to scare his viewers that he was willing to treat, in a childish and empty manner, what should’ve been serious subject material.

The only place in the ’51 film where we see any fear is when the Arness Thing resurrects from its ice block, and the man sitting in the room shoots it and runs away. He promptly runs into the mess hall where he becomes hysterical, and the other people try to calm him down. But this scene is nothing but sheer melodrama, especially when one of the scientists has to throw a glass of water into the man’s face in order to bring him back to his senses. The use of such clichés trivializes the only fear ever portrayed in the ‘51 film.

In summary, The Thing From Another World (1951) does a poor job of impressing its audience with its creature concept. Indeed, the film is purposefully designed to alleviate any build up of tension that the creature might produce in its viewers. There is more than one scene where the actors are almost tripping over each other trying to outdo the previous guy’s one-liner. There is so much comic relief that nobody on screen seems able to seriously confront their situation or their menace. Consequently, the audience also has little trouble dealing with the "man wearing the monster suit." It is in this sense that the ‘51 film violates one of the most basic conventions of horror fiction.

In contrast, the ‘82 film has its protagonists reacting in a very different manner when confronted with the Thing. When the Americans unwrap the two fused Norwegian bodies, the look on Fuchs’ face says it all. His eyes are wide open and his jaw is dropped. Even though he’s assistant biologist, he has absolutely no idea what to make of it. The rest of the men simply stare in complete silence. All are stunned to the extent that words cannot express what they are feeling. The best they can do is just look at one another.

Hendry and company made jokes as they neared the greenhouse door; MacReady and company are absolutely silent as they make their way to the door of the dog cage. The audience’s sense of foreboding becomes overpowering just before the dog-Thing is seen by the men of Outpost 31. All the men are frozen in place, eyes wide and jaws dropped, as they get their first sight of the Bottin Thing in action. When Childs shows up carrying the all-important flamethrower, he at first is so stunned by the sight that he hesitates to pull the trigger. The audience is led to think that he will be the next victim, but at the last moment Childs lets loose and the dog-Thing is toast. After the fire is put out, the men cannot summon up any words to say. There is nothing but stunned silence.

The theme in this case is plain: the ‘82 film is telling the audience that the Bottin Thing is so terrifying that people at first can only stare at it in horror -- something which most of the film’s first-time viewers would probably agree with wholeheartedly. This theme is further developed in the famous blood test scene. Having discovered that Palmer is in reality an alien copy, the men tied down next to him become unglued. They are yelling and screaming as Palmer starts changing before their eyes. Mac tries to kill it but his flamethrower malfunctions. Windows, whose weapon works just fine, can only back away from the unfolding terror. When he finally gets up the courage to face the monster, the panicky Windows ends up freezing where he stands. The Palmer-Thing promptly kills him.

Nowhere in the ‘51 film does anyone yell out of fear for the Arness Thing, and no one is ever rooted in place by the sheer terror of coming face-to-face with the creature. The on-screen reactions to the Bottin Thing, in contrast, serve to accentuate the audience’s own natural response to what they see. The Arness Thing is the butt of jokes; the Bottin Thing truly terrifies.

Furthermore, there is no counterpart in the ‘82 film to the labels used in the ‘51 version (and vice versa). The men of Outpost 31 never refer to the Bottin Thing in the way that people consider the Arness Thing. The Bottin Thing is no "carrot," "boyfriend," or "Mr. Martian." Instead, Blair calls it a "son of a bitch" as he’s dissecting it in his lab. Childs says it’s "voodoo bullshit" and a "motherfucker" when he hears it came from a crashed spacecraft. But the one label that is used most often is simply "thing," a word spoken with obvious disdain more than once in the film. The creature is so amorphous and so indescribable that the humans find that only generic terms will do.

Now, it is obviously true that a ‘50s film could not use profanity. Nevertheless, the Hawks movie does not use any ‘50s equivalent to ‘80s-style language. So, again, we are struck by the completely opposite attitudes displayed towards the creature in the two films. With regard to creature concept and the reactions it evokes, the Bottin Thing is clearly the "superior adaptation."

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