This movie was almost so cool.
Remember when The Thing was remade back in 2011? Okay so it was technically a prequel, but let’s be real here: it was more or less a remake of John Carpenter’s practical effects masterpiece. The film’s biggest flaw? It was loaded with pretty bad CGI, which went against so much of what was great about the ’82 film. Worse yet, practical effects masters studioADI were on set!
The story is by now incredibly well known, but the basic gist is that studioADI whipped up a ton of INCREDIBLE practical effects for The Thing 2011, most of which were completely erased from the film and replaced with terrible CGI; it was such a disaster that studioADI later fan-funded a film called Harbinger Down, which was made as an apology for what happened in 2011.
Over the years, the effects house has released tons of behind the scenes footage showing what almost was, and they’ve just uploaded yet another video today that we wanted to share.
Via the studioADI YouTube channel:
Projects often run concurrently and deadlines overlap so some short fittings or quick bench tests get captured by crew supervisor phones for review. Thanks to ADI’s assistant shop supervisor Garth Winkless, a collection of creature fittings and animatronic tests for THE THING were recently uncovered and we couldn’t wait to share them.
Ugh. What a bummer, huh?