Critics Harsh Reviews of The Thing

[occupant]

Keep scrolling down past the ads, it's a long article. I love how the reviewers tried to tank John Carpenter with their harsh reviews, but in the end, he got the last laugh!

filmschoolrejects.com/john-carpenter-the-thing-critics-1982/

[endo]

Man, I was reading those reviews and getting angry, lol. I saw The Thing in the theaters with my cousin and his family when it released and it was amazing to me and scared the crap out of me.

Now, these many years later, it's still probably my favorite movie of all time. I don't know what these reviewers were seeing, or weren't seeing, to validate reviews like these.
Maybe they just couldn't wrap their heads around it at the time. At least the one gave the effects team props.

Yeah, Carpenter did get the last laugh, it's one of the best horror/sci-fi films ever made IMO.

[MacReadyOrNot]

It’s my personal belief that a film’s success or failure at the box office can rarely be attributed to the words of critics. People are going to see what they want to see and skip what they don’t. This is why we see many critically acclaimed films flop while panned disasters turn a profit. That being said, critics in 1982 certainly didn’t do Carpenter or Universal Pictures any favors.

Ain't that the truth?