vell55

Which one is the better movie.

Kinzdone

Thats a tough match up. They aren't even in the same genre and one is in colour. Its like putting 'Blade Runner' against 'Nosferatu'.

I had to vote for 'The Thing' purely because it is a very ambitious film that handles psychological angles better than most with a similar premise.
Also, strictly from a directorial and technical point of view - not historical or industry importance - it is better.
Psycho was well paced, scored well and set milestones, but milestones alone don't dictate a great film.

'Thing' has some of the last great practical effects, better photography (once again it is in colour so photography would be more refined to cater for that), fantastic scoring, better design and convincing performances.

'Psycho's photography was mostly average, save for a few well imagined scenes and the design of the sets was adequate and although it is a very good film I still think 'The Thing' excels in more areas than 'Psycho'.

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"...the movie you see isn't my movie or the director's movie, its the viewer's movie. How they see it and interpret it from what we have done..." Rutger Hauer.

Ford

I just plain like "The Thing" better. It had such a simple special effect. By saying the alien could look like anyone, it gave a huge sense of mistrust. When they actually did have to use physical effects, they were amazing (the spider-head for instance). It's one of the few movies that I'll bother to listen to the commentary on. That goes for any John Carpenter and Kurt Russell collaboration though.

I do think that "Psycho" had more of an effect on film history though.

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Kinzdone

I second your post. I do like to listen to commentary and there are good ones out there, especially the Russell/Carpenter ones, I agree.

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"...the movie you see isn't my movie or the director's movie, its the viewer's movie. How they see it and interpret it from what we have done..." Rutger Hauer.

Flame

I voted Psycho, for the simple reason that the film starts simply as a robbery and then suddenly and unexpectedly pulls you into a psychological horror. The shower scene is classic and has influenced many other films. Anthony Perkins (?) was brilliant, Hitchcock at his best.

I recently re-saw The Thing last week (I mentioned it in Last Movie You Saw thread) and we all thought that it was fantastic and tense, thankfully not too obvious and dated well (we were all surprised when we realised that it was made in the 80's). It is certainly more than just a special effect driven scifi, but don't forget that it was still a re-make. I loved the original Super Carrot film and found that that one was the more innovative and ground breaking due to the theme (maybe the first alien film???)

I was actually disappointed with the ending after everything that had happened, the survivors would not just forget the paranoia, sit down ... ummm ... and do what they did.

Aside ... while watching The Thing we were momentarily distracted by a large meteorite brightly fireballing across the night sky EEEK ... LOL this certainly added to the creepy atmosphere

TONGO

I voted The Thing, but this isnt a fair vote. Psycho was SO ahead of its time, and MUCH more innovative + endurable over time than The Thing.

vell55

nobody else?

Escape

I thought that's what helped make that film. The timing and angles of the images Hitchcock did use were placed so well into the areas of the film that it just stuck in your mind. Shower scene of course was the big one that many talk about but the one that has always stuck in my mind was where Norman comes rushing out immediately on the detective at the top of the stairs without allowing him to prepare for the onslaught of the stabbing attack that would ensue as a result. The shot was normal, then immediately, the camera zooms straight down. Like Bam! Bam! No chance to breathe. Caught me off guard big time when I first viewed it.

Yeah the mistrust made it tense throughout that flick. Like a 'who done it' story though this time in the form of a Science Fiction tale. I did enjoy 'The Thing' more so than Psycho though. As a matter of fact, I only recently watched Psycho in full for the first time a year or two ago. I enjoyed the remake better.

The Thing used actual physical special effects and they were pretty damn good in my opinion. I mean when that head grew legs. YIKES!

You make a good point actually. I think it would be a better film if the audience didn't know it was going to turn into that type of movie however I believe an accomplishment like that would be borderline impossible.

IMO, I'd say it's like when something serious and terrifying happens, people will just break out in hysteria. It's human emotions and sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or cry. A girl at work for instance fell down and really hurt herself last year on the ice patch on the stairs. Two other coworkers witnesses this and later on just started to laugh after she left in an ambulance. I was actually shocked they did this and she said they were crying while laughing. That's how messed up that incident made them so it does happen and I'm certain happens alot.

Well your name is Flame so if a fire ball is going to shoot across the night sky during a time like that, you should be the one to witness it.....and of course anyone else who is in the presence......of the Flame.

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Ford

I always took the ending of "The Thing" as Kurt Russell and Keith David (hey, 4 first names!) still not trusting each other and waiting for the other to make their move until eventually they both just froze to death. They were too exhausted to do anything else, plus they had nowhere to go.

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vell55

That's how I saw it.