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The Thing (2011) is a prequel to John Carpenter's cult classic film, also titled The Thing (1982). Is it any good? Read on to find out...


The Thing (2011) is the prelude to John Carpenter's cult classic film, in which paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) travels to an isolated outpost in Antarctica to join an international team who unearths a remarkable discovery. Their elation quickly turns to fear as they realize that their experiment has freed a mysterious being from its frozen prison. Paranoia spreads like an epidemic as a creature that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish in this spine-tingling thriller.


Like John Carpenter's original, itself a remake of The Thing from Another World (1951), The Thing (2011) takes place in Antarctica in 1982. It shows what happened at the Norwegian base camp that MacReady (Kurt Russell) and his crew found in the Carpenter film, and ends just minutes before that film starts. As such, it shouldn't have been titled the same as the film it's meant to be a prequel of. They could have called it Before The Thing, The Thing Begins, or even Fear The Thing. To simply call it The Thing is just madness.


I know that a lot of people don't like this film, but I enjoyed it. Was it as good as the Carpenter film? Of course not. But it has the same feel and spirit and never failed to keep me enthralled. There are a lot of cool, creepy creature mutations, though occasionally the CGI looks a bit fake. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I've always liked Mary Elizabeth Winstead, doing her best Ripley imitation here.


The Thing (2011) is presented in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 1:42:54. On the audio side, there is only an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. Subtitles are available in English only.


Here is a list of all of the special features that can be found on the disc. The last two items are new and were not on Mill Creek's 2019 release of the film. Also new is the presentation of the deleted/extended scenes, which are presented here as one long video with titles for each scene. On the previous Mill Creek disc, they were shown separately and without any titles anywhere (not even in the menu). The Picture-in-Picture track with producers Marc Abraham and Eric Newman from Universal's original Blu-ray from 2012 is still nowhere to be found. I was hoping that Mill Creek would have revived it for this new re-release.

• Audio Commentary with director Matthijs van Heijningen and producer Eric Newman.
• The Thing Evolves (13:59) - The cast and crew talk about the film and pay respect to John Carpenter's version.
• Fire & Ice (4:46) - A look at the flamethrowers and visual effects used in the film.
• Deleted/Extended Scenes (9:15) - Includes seven scenes: "2 Phone Calls", "It's True", "Come In, Over!", "That's Not Karl", "Colin", "Two Heads", and "Start the Helicopter Now".
• Trailer (2:33)
• Who Goes There (3:48) - A video essay edited by Carter Skull and narrated by Hank Lawhead, set to clips from the movie.
• What Goes There (3:03) - A video essay edited by Carter Skull and narrated by Hank Lawhead, set to clips from the movie and behind the scenes footage.

The big special feature of this release is the new Steelbook case, which has a vinyl slipcover over it similar to what we've seen from recent Lionsgate releases. The front features a man in a parka screaming out in pain, while the back shows the dog being chased by the helicopter.


The inside is a nice two-page spread showing the alien spaceship found under the ice. It's a really beautiful case.


On the face of the new disc is a claw coming out of the ice, while the old disc shows a far-away shot of the research station. This is the only way to tell if you have the new or old disc without the cases.


The Thing (2011) is available in a new Walmart Exclusive SteelBook Blu-ray from Mill Creek. As far as Amazon goes... If you want the additional picture-in-picture bonus feature, you should also pick up Universal's original Blu-ray release. Don't forget to also pick up John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), and the original The Thing from Another World (1951).


All images were taken from the IMDB gallery of the film. This item has been provided by Mill Creek Entertainment for review on this site.