1951’s The Thing from Another World, which airs on TCM tonight at 8pm EST, is more than just one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time — it also inspired another one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time, John Carpenter‘s 1982 Antarctic fear-fest The Thing. Both films are based on the 1938 sci-fi short story “Who Goes There?,” which told the tale of a polar research base invaded by an ancient alien who can take on the form of other living things.
That short story was very different from what audiences had come to expect from realist director Howard Hawks; but he bought the rights to the film because he had noticed the increasing popularity of sci-fi publications and thought he should get a foot in the burgeoning market. Hawks joined the film as a producer, but felt the original story was too complicated for film, so he made some tweaks: here, it’s not an alien shape-shifter that runs amok on a polar research base; it’s an alien plant that feeds on blood, walks like a man, and can kill sled dogs and research scientists without breaking a sweat (breaking a dew?).
