Movies seem to have a type of consensus on one thing, something is wrong about snowy wastelands.  It's the epicenter of the peace-inducing mass murder of Watchmen, it's where the Empire nearly crushed the Rebellion on Hoth, and its where aliens like to take the form of people as this third iteration of the movie wants to drive home.

When last we left The Thing it was the 1980's and Kurt Russell and John Carpenter had teamed up in a movie that never really go the due it deserved.  It was actually a pretty good (though at times campy) sci-fi survival horror flick with some well-timed scares.  It's impossible to appreciate the level of influence it had on the genre, most notably in the Dead Space video game series.

The new movie is interesting in one aspect; it's not a straight up re-make or re-imagination.  It's actually a prequel to the Carpenter-Russell cult classic that focuses on the Norwegian crew that deal with this thing before the American team we're all familiar with gets out there and starts getting offed.

If you haven't seen the Carpenter movie then this film is a good starting off point as it sets up the idea of group tension over a traitor hidden in plain sight.  It doesn't have many moments that make you jump in your seat, but they don't shy away from gory aftermath or visuals of the constantly reforming alien that might make you cringe.  There are definitely a few nice touches if you're familiar with the Kurt Russel take, or if you watch that one afterwards you'll see how it lead into the other.  That being said the two movies aren't dissimilar enough to justify one being a prequel and considering it a remake of a remake is probably just as good an option as the overall themes don't really change.

Overall it's a pretty good version and while none of the characters really ingratiate themselves to the audience it's tough to really hate any of them all that much either and the tension between this group of people that mostly don't like each other comes across as relate-able.

I rate this movie 2.55 out of 3.14