I’ve seen both the Thing and the Road Warrior more times than I can remember. I’ve owned Laserdisc copies, VHS copies, DVD copies and currently own the Blu Ray editions. But seeing them on the big screen allows for a completely different dimension. There’s a weird voodoo that happens, sitting in the dark with stories that have become so familiar they’re considered personal scripture.
They’re not on a TV screen where you control them. They tower over you, seize your attention, and draw you into details you haven’t noticed in the 34 years you’ve been watching them. Things like blood mixing into the leaking gas Max sops up with a rag, an airbrushed painting of a naked girl on the gyro copter’s wing, and hideous shapes in the deformed corpse during the Thing’s autopsy. Even better, I won a free ticket for my knowledge of John Carpenter. Who says all of those dateless Saturday nights, watching horror films and crying myself to sleep didn’t pay off?