John Carpenter Calls 2011 The Thing Prequel a ‘Piece of Crap,’ but Some Fans Are Rushing to Its Defence

Horror movie legend John Carpenter has slammed the 2011 The Thing prequel movie, calling it a “piece of crap.” But not all his fans are onboard with his take.

2011’s The Thing serves as a direct prequel to Carpenter’s much-loved 1982 horror masterpiece, The Thing. It revolves around a team of Norwegian scientists who discover a parasitic alien buried deep in the ice at a Norwegian Antarctic research station. Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. and written by Eric Heisserer, The Thing flopped at the box office, grossing just $31.5 million worldwide. It has a 34% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, and a 43% rating from fans.

IGN's own The Thing review returned a 5/10. We said: "The special effects quickly devolve into over-the-top goriness, with some of the Thing's forms coming across as more ludicrous than terrifying. There are some risible CG moments involving the morphing of actors' faces with the creature's, and the whole last act falls apart into a 'chase the CG bogey monster before it gets you' sequence devoid of any true suspense or originality."

Count the 78-year-old Carpenter as one of The Thing's fiercest critics. During a recent panel at FanExpo in Chicago, Carpenter pulled no punches when discussing the movie. “They made a sequel, I guess, or something,” he began. “Norwegian camp — did you see that piece of crap? They did digital effects and they had… Instead of a blood test it was a dental test. I mean, it was unreal. It’s like, what?! The dentist?!”

Kurt Russell, who starred in Carpenter’s The Thing and joined him on the panel, responded to Carpenter’s comments to say, “John doesn’t suffer fools greatly guys.”

While most agree 2011’s The Thing isn’t the best movie in the world, some fans have come to its defense in the wake of Carpenter’s outburst. “To be fair to the creators of The Thing (2011), it wasn’t their fault that the movie became a ‘piece of crap,’” one fan said.

“Director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. and the creature effects team at Amalgamated Dynamics had created a ton of practical creature effects for the film. However, the studio and production ultimately decided that the practical effects looked too ‘dated’ and too much like an 80s movie, so they chose to replace most of them with CGI. Even the director later admitted that, in hindsight, it was the wrong decision from the studio.

“No offense to John Carpenter, but if you’re going to blame anyone for how the 2011 movie turned out, blame the studio.

“There are also workprints featuring the original practical creature effects stored in the studio vaults. Fans have been calling for these to be released and remastered, restoring the original practical effects so we can finally see the movie closer to how it was originally intended.”

“I honestly liked it and appreciated how respectful it was of Carpenter’s movie,” another fan added. “It was a complete retread of The Thing, but it was pretty good actually,” one person said. “Would be way better if they didn't put CGI over top of all the practical effects.”

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“Did we need it? No. Am I glad we have it? Yes,” another fan commented.

Since The Thing’s release, van Heijningen has discussed his regret about the CGI reshoots, telling Syfy Wire in 2023 that the movie was “caught in a cross-zone where animatronics were old-fashioned and the CGI wasn’t good enough.”

“We made the wrong decision to do it in post-production [when it came to] making the monster design in the computer,” he continued. “I regret that now.”

“The Carpenter version was so good and a lot of fans were almost offended by the prequel and didn’t see the necessity for a follow-up. But now I fully understand that it was a bit early.“

van Heijningen also discussed where a potential sequel would go had The Thing not bombed at the box office. "Kate would escape and would be picked up at sea and tries to warn the world at an oil platform near the South Pole," he explained. "The monster would break loose on the the rig. I liked the oil rig mayhem idea."

Alas, there’s zero chance those sequel ideas become reality, given the movie’s poor critical and commercial performance... and Carpenter’s clear disdain for it.

Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images.