The Things (1951+ 1982 Films) | Episode #80

In this spooktacular episode, hosts Katherine Troyer and Anthony Tresca discuss not one but two (well, kind of three) THINGS:  the 1951 film The Thing from Another World, John Carpenter's beloved 1982 film The Thing, and the novella that started it all...John W. Campbell's 1938 "Who Goes There?"

Episode Highlights: We explore how the thing manages, time and again, to change its form in order to provide the most culturally relevant moments of horror. Looking particularly at the two films, we talk about the ways that the 1951 film presents a more affirmative "we can do it team!" mentality that stands in sharp contrast with the 1982 film's disaffirmative sense of paranoia and "everyone is the threat" mentality. We think about how each text depicts our alien invader and we consider what it is about this story that continues to haunt us in subsequent adaptations and remakes. 

A Dose of Scholarship: We discuss a number of pieces of scholarship: Stephen Price's essay "Dread, Taboo, and The Thing: Toward a Social Theory of the Horror Film" in the 2004 book The Horror Film, Ronald Allan Lopez Cruz's 2012 essay "Mutations and Metamorphoses: Body Horror is Biological Horror," and Eric White's 1993 article "The Erotics of Becoming: Xenogensis and 'The Thing.'"

 

This podcast episode first aired on December 19, 2022. Thank you Jackson O'Brien for being the best editor a horror podcast could ask for!

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