Monster Madness Marches Into Best Video

With a new month comes a new Best Video movie series, and the March madness at the film and cultural center in Hamden has everything to do with horror and nothing to do with sports. 

Monster Madness, the brainchild of Best Video’s own Anthony Capasso, debuted to a crowd hungry for a good scare Tuesday night. The first film of the series was The Thing, the now classic 1982 version directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell, which tells the story of a group of researchers in Antarctica dealing with an alien being that takes on the form of whatever it inhabits and wreaks havoc on the bodies and psyches of those who encounter it. 

To shape the series, Capasso selected eight movies and then posted them on Best Video’s Instagram page, asking viewers to vote. The Thing won over David Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly; other choices that made the cut were The Descent, Little Shop of Horrors, and Alien. Capasso has seen all of them except The Descent. He said he based his choices on ​“monster movies, but not in the traditional sense.”

“Madness is at the core of what these films are about,” he added. ​“What goes on when you are confronted with stuff like that: a man-eating plant, scary caves.”

John Carpenter is one of Capasso’s favorite directors, so he was excited for the night’s screening, as were the attendees who spent time picking out their seats and grabbing their drinks and snacks at the cafe, including a special Cookie Monster latte made especially for this month’s series. This reporter did not try one (I stuck with a glass of wine with the hope that it would chill me out), but the one that I saw walk by looked delightful. 

Capasso welcomed everyone and introduced the film by saying ​“get ready for The Thing.” He told the crowd that if they liked this film, they should come back for next week’s film and should check out Carpenter’s other films, such as Escape from New York and They Live.

I must report that my wonderful glass of Malbec did not do one thing to chill me out. Even though I have seen this film at least four or five times before, it still kept me at the edge of my seat — and sometimes out of it — for the majority of its run time. I watched a good amount of it through my hands, a testament to its continued effectiveness over 40 years after its release. The Thing was not a hit when it first came out; in fact, it was kind of a bomb. If you recall 1982 was the year another alien — E.T. The Extraterrestrial — made its way into everyone’s hearts and wallets. This film is nothing like that one, and trust me, that’s not a bad thing.

Based on a 1938 novella called Who Goes There? By John W. Campbell, Jr. that was then made into a 1951 film called The Thing from Another World, Carpenter’s version is technically a remake but is much truer to the original story. The setting is cold and desolate — a research station in Antarctica — and the story opens with a helicopter pilot chasing a dog and trying to shoot it. He is not successful, and the men at the station save the dog from any harm, though the pilot goes mad and attacks them as well. When they discover the pilot was from a neighboring Norwegian station, a trio of men go there to figure out why he was reacting that way. What they find is death and destruction, and a two-faced multi-limbed creature that also seems to be dead. I say ​“seems to be” without giving too much away, as this is only the beginning. What follows is a descent into paranoia and distrust among the men at the station as more and more information is revealed about the alien, which can take on the form of whatever living creature it invades, often without others knowing it has done so until it is too late.

We currently live in a golden age of CGI, but if you are a fan of practical effects, The Thing is the movie for you. The alien’s morphing sequences are chilling, stressful, but also dare I say, fun? You just don’t see such things much anymore, and while some might consider it cheesy compared to the digital creations of today, the artistry of that type of work is often jaw dropping.

The actors in the film create a camaraderie that is as believable as the crumbling of that camaraderie once they figure out that any of them could be the alien. There are lots of laughs, lots of booze, explosions, and that nonstop tension. It is a real ride. 

But there is also a lot to think about in terms of how the trust breaks down and the paranoia heightens. At one point when Blair (played by the incomparable Wilford Brimley) is isolated away from others, he says to Macready (played with fire and a fabulous head of hair and beard by Kurt Russell): ​“I don’t know who to trust.” 

“Trust is a hard thing to come by these days,” Mac says. He could be talking about real-world 2024 right there. 

I will absolutely not give away who does and does not get out alive, but I will again tell you that if you ever have a chance to see this film — or any horror film — on a big screen and with others, please do so. There is a scene where Mac tests the blood serum of all of the men (FYI, this film does not pass the Bechdel test, not even close) who have survived, and many in the audience exhaled in relief and exclaimed in disbelief at the results. It’s one of the tensest scenes in all of filmdom.

There is also the soundtrack, by the legendary Ennio Morricone, and the cinematography by Dean Cundey — and of course, Carpenter’s mark is all over it. Capasso said afterward seeing it again reminded him of ​“the little things you forget” and I agreed. I mean, this is a film where two of the characters are named Mac and Windows. And in a year where performances by dogs in films are getting a lot of attention, the husky in the beginning of this one stands out as much as the human actors. 

Ultimately, it just made me want to come back for more. Luckily, I have three more chances — and so do you. 

The Monster Madness film series continues every Tuesday in March at Best Video and begins at 7 p.m., with admission free to members and $10 for nonmembers. More information including the schedule can be found at the Best Video website.