October 29, 2011 13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2011: Night 11 The Thing (1982)
It just couldn't be Halloween without an entry actually from the man most synonymous with Halloween (1978), John Carpenter. Thankfully he had a horror remake, The Thing (1982). John only wrote Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) and Halloween II (1981). He both wrote and directed Halloween, Someone's Watching Me! (1978), The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988), Escape from L.A. (1996), and Ghosts of Mars (2001). With only director credit John has done Christine (1983), a segment in Body Bags (1993), Village of the Damned (1995), Vampires (1998), John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns (2005) and Pro-Life (2006) for Masters of Horror (2005), and recently The Ward (2010).
Kurt Russell stars in The Thing as MacReady. Kurt is exceeding well known for Escape from New York, Escape from L.A., and Grindhouse (2007)--specifically Death Proof (2007). Wilford Brimley is in the movie as Dr. Blair, and has no credits that I felt
pertinent despite his lengthy body of work. David Clennon plays Palmer. David gets around, particularly on television and notably in several episodes of Ghost Whisperer (2005) from 2009 to 2010. Keith David got his real start in The Thing as Childs. Keith has since been in They Live, The Puppet Masters (1994), as the starring voice in the animated Gargoyles (1994) TV series and spin-offs, the voice of the animated Spawn (1997), then back in the flesh for Pitch Black (2000)--with Radha Mitchell from last night, The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), and not too long ago, The Cape (2011). Richard Dysart plays Dr. Copper and did one of the voices in the animated Spawn with Keith from 1997 to 1999.
Charles Hallahan plays Norris and was also in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), and did one of the voices in Gargoyles from 1995 to 1996. Peter Maloney is Bennings and was also in The Amityville Horror (1979), The Children (1980)--I think it's a Troma film--and
somewhere in Thinner (1996). Richard Masur is Clark. Richard has also been in The Believers (1987), and It (1990). Donald Moffat plays Garry and was in Monster in the Closet (1986). Joel Polis is Fuchs and was in an episode of Angel (1999) in 2004. Thomas G. Waites plays Windows and was in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) in 1998. Norbert Weisser is credited as one of the Norwegians and was in Twilight Zone: The Movie--in the same segment as Charles Hallahan, and a 2006 episode of Ghost Whisperer. Larry J. Franco is the "Norwegian Passenger with Rifle" and was also in They Live. Additionally Larry is a producer with such movies as Escape from New York, this The Thing, Christine, Prince of Darkness, They Live, Batman Returns (1992), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Jurassic Park III (2001), and Batman Begins (2005). Finally, Bill Lancaster wrote the Thing screenplay, and it is his only pertinent credit.