A confusing "prequel" I don't understand this prequel at all. The producers stated that John Carpenter's original film was "perfect" hence their decision to make a prequel instead of a remake. But in making this prequel they have completely changed the entire premise of the original film, which is, in my opinion, subtlety, fear, mistrust, suspicion and a good use of the ol' fashioned "whodunnit" storyline. Kim Paffenroth sums up the fear of zombie movies really well, and I think it applies equally as well to the original The Thing: The suspense comes more from how the human characters interact. The movie has the suspense, paranoia, and claustrophobia of a movie about a siege, or a lifeboat full of survivors with limited supplies: the besieging army or the sea is a "given" and is not really the enemy, the real enemy is within the group, with the fear and ignorance that tears them apart and sets them against one another. Whereas the 2011 film seems only interested in trying to shock audiences, showing many graphic alien morphing scenes, and yet, none of them are nearly as frightening, gory, realistic or affecting as its 20-year-old predecessor. For scientist most of the people are complete idiots, and not in the entertaining "don't go in there" kind of way, but more in the face palming kind of way. Been a huge fan of the original, I really didn't enjoy this movie and I knew that I wouldn't. Honestly, it's really not worth a watch. Stick to Carpenter's original.