a review of 怪人

ℍ𝕆𝕆ℙ𝕋𝕆𝔹𝔼ℝ 𝔼𝕃𝔼𝕍𝔼ℕ ℕ𝕀𝔾ℍ𝕋 ℕ𝕀ℕ𝔼𝕋𝔼𝔼ℕ: Undeniably a well-made SF horror, but there's not much to recommend this one to modern audiences over Carpenter's version (save for anyone who might understandably have the willies about Rob Bottin's still very effective practical FX) but it's interesting as an artifact of its time as one of the first "serious" SF films to imagine an invasion by alien life through the lens of scientific inquiry as well as dumb two-fisted Saturday morning serial heroics. Takes a while to really get going amidst a bunch of post-WWII back-slapping boys-club dorkery with the air force guys (including an extraneous romantic subplot with the female lead who's here just to exchange Hawksian screwball banter and scream). There's frankly far too little screentime for James Arness as the titular "Thing", or at least not enough to really differentiate it from your standard FRANKENSTEIN-type heavy that just lumbers around backhanding extras. By the time things really get moving in the third act, it feels like maybe too little too late and the final showdown is somewhat underwhelming, validating technologically-enabled violence over more thoughtful scientific approaches, caricatured here as foolish appeasement.