Scene Analyst - The Thing (Blood test)

 Introduction

The blood test scene in the movie the THING 1982 is probably the most iconic in cinematic horror history, The movie in general as a matter of fact is (In my opinion) the best horror film ever produced in cinema, John Carpenter really understood the human psyche while making this film and knew precisely the one thing we as people fear the most, The unknown, The feeling of not knowing is something you feel throughout the whole movie and every second feels tense with emotions flaring up between the group and the paranoia which ensues, This scene is the height of that paranoia and shows the true desperation of the situation that these characters are in.

Context

In a research facilities in the north pole a group of scientist (And other members of the crew) are greeted by the sudden appearance of a dog being chased by a man who seems fanatically desperate to kill the animal, Upon dealing with the situation and taking the dog in and then checking on the research facilities where the dog and Man came from the Crew discover that the people of the site have been killed in a pecular manner, Upon returning with a body of a creature they found strange going ons occur, A scientist goes mad and begins cutting all lines of communication and transport leaving them completly stranded and alone all because of the Pathogen that the creature carried, followed by the aforementioned dog being infected with said pathogen and killing the other dogs, people become infected and we see it killing and causing havoc, During all of this a air of tension is built due to everyone suspecting the others infected and that anyone could turn on one another at any moment, This leads to the team agreeing to a blood test however the blood is destroyed and after a moment of deliberation and Power struggle, MacCready (the pilot) takes matters into his own hands, This is what followed.

The Scene

(7) The Blood Test | The Thing (1982) - YouTube

The scene opens up with MacCready taking control, Just by looking at his demonour we can tell he's taking this matter with the upmost of seriousness and determination, We feel the tension in the room as he points the flamethrower at everyone while ordering them to Tie themselves up, When he points the gun at Charles, the silence in the room builds the tension up as the characters alongside the audience understand the Lengths MacCready is willing to go to ensure this Creature doesn't survive this night, During this whole moment look at the way everyone else is portrayed, John Carpentar did an excellent job in directing the actors who aren't interacting in the moment and giving them all a unique way of looking at the situation, Take note of Palmer for example, During this first moment we see him looking away or looking down from MacCready, As we know he is infected and a creature so with this knowledge we begin to understand that the creature isn't taking it's chances with confronting MacCready and instead opting to take a more Passive approach, trying to deesossiate itself from the moment, As MacCready points the gun at Charles we see Copper readying to charge MacCready while holding a scalpel, The lighting on Coppers hand is blue and to me this symbolises that Copper isn't doing this for malicious reasons or because he's infected rather that he simple doesn't want to risk dying from MacCready's actions, Again the silence in this scene is key as we hear every move made, This helps when Copper charges MacCready because we hear him charging alongside MacCready again adding to this sense of paranoia as every little sound causes these people to take action, When Copper is shot there isn't any loud dramatic music or Screaming from the other characters, Simple silence as they and the audience feel the gravity of what MacCready done, the simple matter of killing a man with no hesitation and in such quick succession paints MacCready in this dark light that leaves him in this moral grey area, The shot where we see everyone's reaction for a quick moment shows us everyone's reactions, Notice Palmer and the way he stares at Coppers corpse, the look doesn't scream shock rather it's the Creature staring in fear as it now knows it's in danger, the 

Now jumping to the moment of the blood test, As MacCready tells everyone his plans about drawing everyone's blood we really begin to feel the silence taking it's affect as we pan across the faces of the other characters, seeing their emotions and how they feel about the situation, I want to take this moment to look at the lighting and the set, with the story taking place inside a research facilities in this one room there's this feeling of claustrophobia as it's tight and cramped with clutter taking up most of the space, This builds to the elements of fear as it really feels like there's no escape and with each character being so close to one another questions of who's infected and what they could do in that moment are opened to the audience, The lighting adds to this tension as it's dimly lit with very little natural lighting rather these dark muggy yellow lights which just beam down upon these characters really driving the nail into the unsettling environment these people are in, As MacCready test's each person we see the person in question and their anticipation of the results, MacCready ironically uses a heated wire made of COPPER to test the blood with the logic being that the creature's biology is all one living being, Something i want to take note on is how nervous everyone is when their being tested (except Palmer), Almost like they aren't even certain if they are themselves or the creature that lurks, want to look at the moment right before Palmer is exposed at 4:50 into the scene, Take note of the silence, upon second viewing i begun questioning why no music was used to lead to the tense moment, after years of thinking and studying i now know the reason being is due to leaving the audience in complete suspense and mysterie, at this point the audience might already of decided who is infected and waiting for that moment, Palmer's character isn't a big character or has any big interaction and this moment actually plays well at the start of the test as Palmer did have one moment with MacCready showing a human emotion of sorrow against MacCready's actions, This pulls the audiences guard down, Take note of his facial expressions before the wire touches the blood, First time viewers might not catch onto it but you can actually see a small smirk on his face here as he looks down, almost like he's thinking "Well, i guess the jig is up", Then as soon as the blood makes contact and the creature reveals itself and the action begins the silece is abruptly destroyed by the Creature screeching alongside the others screams of terror as Palmer begins to show his true form, I also want to turn to the practical effects used here, Though slightly dated to today's standards you can really tell the practical effects department gave it their all into creating these creatures, The grosteque and Deformed faces of the Creatures that were once people really give off this uncanny feeling as your mind knows their humans but have been twisted and contorted into this Depravied creature of pure Horror, It is during this action we really feel the isolation of these characters and the clatuphobia of them as they are tied together and try to get away from it but fail, MacCready literally backed in a corner as he desperately tries to ready his flamethrower,  The tension at this point has reached it's height as we see that this creature could easily end all of this, we see it's intelligence as he goes for the closest person with the flamethrower and killing him quickly before turning right for MacCready, This to me is more terrifying then the creature itself as it has a strategic mind and intelligence beyond simply just killing, The way this is all shot is simplistic and mostly static, this keeps the audience grounded to the moment and keeps them focused on the action itself, typically horror films will have these wacky camera movements swing around from the creature and the Charcter alongside them running and screaming and loud music blasting, but not this film, this film maintains the silence, maintains the isolated setting and the sheer hopeless struggle these characters are facing.

My Personal Thoughts and Opinions on the scene

This scene is one of the most treasured movie moments that I have ever seen, I first watched it when I was way too young to vividly remember this scene and how much it scared me when I was young, though it was because of this film that I developed a love for horror as I seek the next thrill of fear that this movie gave me.

John Carpenter was truly ahead of his time for this film and truly understood how to scare a person and it's a real shame it flopped in the box office as I really would love a sequel of this film (I refuse to acknowledge the prequel), Everything from the setting, the plot, the characters and the Sound all play like a Orchestra bouncing off one another and keeping a perfect rhythm and this scene is the height of it, Just by watching it you understand the Paranoia, Fear, Isolation, Hopelessness, Clautathobia and Dreadfulness of the situation these people are in.

My Rating for this film is 10/10 a perfect horror movie