This is The House That Carpenter Built

I hadn't seen The Thing in years. And all these years later, so many of my favorite creators call John Carpenter a big huge major influence, including the Ross and Matt Duffer, the Stranger Things guys. Of COURSE! Dude. Does anybody else think the two stories dovetail so neatly that the thing in The Thing becomes the stranger things in Stranger Things?

Feb 2018

"We wanted something in the vein of the classic films we loved growing up," Ross shared with IGN. "Obviously the influences are all over the show, whether it’s Spielberg’s stuff or John Carpenter or the novels of Stephen King. And I think for us looking at it, it’s like, 'What is it about these stories that resonated so much with us when we were growing up?' And I think really what it is, what connects all of them even though tonally sometimes they’re different -- but what really connects them is that these very ordinary people encountering these very extraordinary things. So I think those were the initial conversations, of can we get back to that style of storytelling?"

What I forgot I love about John Carpenter  is his storytelling prowess, like how The Thing ends on an open note where the protagonists' fate is left non-specific. Spielberg does great with this device too, as does Stephen King. These guys were the kings of 1980s storytelling and yeah, the Duffer Brothers are operating on a spectrum made whole through their absorption. I get that, and I love that. Y'all, I could totes hang with the Duffers. Do you have any idea how many hours of my life have pertained in some way to these storytellers?

Put super-simply: these stories persist because there's so much to speculate about, including whether or not The Thing ends with MacReady and Childs transmogriformulated into Thing 1 and Thing 2, and "it" is about to go back to sleep again until the rescue team arrives, at which point "it" can get a lift to a great food source: civilization. So I like to think of MacReady and Childs as a manifestation of the Thing finally getting it right, having perfected a viable human replication, after failing (but learning!) with all those dogs and men...and obviously some spiders. It likes spiders.
 

Something about 1983

In The Thing, it is 1983 in Antarctica. In Stranger Things, it is 1983 in Hawkins, Indiana. In common, there's a creature from another world that's been dormant deep below in a frozen realm. Now the creature has been awoken by the unfortunate antics carried out by a squad of researchers, and the deadly genie is out of its proverbial bottle. Also in common, this strange thing seeks to survive and to spread all across the planet, maybe all across the universe! The creature requires living hosts. It is impervious to everything except fire.

Creature Double-Feature?

Let's talk about the nature of the beast in both stories. This is the fun part. The creature requires a host in order to replicate, right? It is suggested that it would remain dormant for millennia until it finds a suitable environment. For most of the story, whatever screeching, writhing monstrosity manages to survive the replication looks like a wet pile of Starship crew after a transporter malfunction. As the movie progresses, the Thing gets better at attack, absorption and imitation, but first it tears mightily through all the Norwegians, their dogs, then all the American dogs and humans until the only surviving life-forms are MacReady and Childs. In Stranger Things, Eleven tells the other kids that it's her fault that the creature was awoken, insisting that she is reason that it has the ability to materialize from its icy realm in the dark depths she calls the Upside Down. Well how come that is? How does El know it is her fault? Well, how indeed, dear reader! And here is the apotheosis of my would-be cross-over fan fictionalizing...I love doing this stuff. And I love these Duffer Brothers.

The ancient alien is a Darwinian nightmare, defying everything we know about zoology, paleontology, genetics and developmental biology. The thing is a miracle of evolution, or one could argue, an abomination of natural selection. Like an undersea life-form, the thing thrives in dark, cold and hostile environments. Its core structure is kind of like a fleshy kelp tree, and it is strong. It throws thick, sinewy tendrils that can penetrate and grind up its hapless victims. It can also reproduce through spore production, propagating like a fungus by absorbing all carbon-based life-forms and appropriating whatever materials it needs to better adapt, survive and spread. What it does not use, it discards in favor of traits better-suited for adaptation. Not only can it absorb materials, but it can also imitate. So it can mimic blood, gristle, bones, teeth, even hair. The thing is capable of replicating the useful attributes of whatever life-form it consumes, be it insect, reptile, beast or man. As it replicates, it adapts. It learns. It mutates. If is is capable of replicating, adapting and mutating, then imagine what would transpire should such a creature take on telekinesis, clairvoyance, and the ability to travel back and forth between the physical world and a cold, dark psychic realm? The alien has adapted beyond the physical. It was never a thing of nature, not as mankind understands nature. But now it's a thing of super-nature. It is a much stranger thing. What a great place to restart the story.That's my theory, and I'm stickin' to it! You go, Duffer Brothers. Well done. 🔥

It loves spiders.

Related: Don't go to sleep on this Kurt Russell, he's still trying to spread all across the universe.