The Thing Limited Edition ( Arrow Video)

Ordered my copy of this Carpenter classic but it is selling out fast.

The Thing Limited Edition [Blu-ray]: Amazon.co.uk: Kurt Russell, John Carpenter: DVD & Blu-ray

 

It's sold out on Zavvi.

 

And Amazon UK too...

 

How is this different from the one that came out earlier this year?

 

Better transfer and package.

 

Once someone does a digital transfer, it sort of exists forever. Do they print 1,500 discs and then delete the file? Doubt it.

 

This was initially announced as a limited edition of 4,000, with a further 4,000 steelbook copies available. Unprecedented demand crashed Arrow's website for more than 24 hours last weekend. When the site did finally come back up, the remaining copies sold out quickly. Arrow then announced the run on the regular limited edition would be increased to 6,000, and the additional 2,000 copies then sold out, via third-party e-tailers, over the next few days.

I'd recommend anyone who is desperate to pick this up to keep checking Amazon UK. A good number of people placed safety orders with Amazon when Arrow's own site was down. Some of those orders will eventually be cancelled, freeing up stock.

The Thing is hardly a personal favourite, but I did see it back in the early '80s. Don't think I've seen it since. With all the hubbub last weekend, I decided to get an order in with Arrow whilst I could. I have a lot of their box sets, and they are beautifully produced.

 

No, like every new transfer it will, of course, be archived for future releases. I don't really understand your question?

 

I'd like to see some evidence of this. The HD Blu-ray I saw done by Universal DVS was spectacular -- it's the best the movie ever looked, and Carpenter supervised all the work. I'm not convinced anybody could afford the money necessary to do a different (let alone better) scan and color-correction pass. It was all done in 4K from the original camera negatives, on an Arriscanner, and they made very, very good choices from what I saw. That's an exemplary transfer.

I have no connection with Universal and all the people I used to know there are gone, so I'm just speaking as an industry observer. I think a lot of times, companies claim to have a better or different version of an old movie, and it turns out they're just using the same files that were actually prepared by the studio, because they don't have the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars it would take to rescan, re-correct, dust-bust, grain-manage, fix, remix, and render it all over again from scratch.

I could totally understand if they just added more documentary material, and I have no doubt there's a lot more out there than was provided on the Universal disc.

 

Though the Shout! release from last year is already packed. I rarely give out "A+" grades for bonus materials but that one deserved it:

The Thing: Collector's Edition [Blu-Ray] (1982)

 

I'm wondering about all of the deleted footage shot for The Thing. Carpenter was reworking the film during the shoot a lot. There must be a ton of stuff we haven't seen. I wish they would include that.

 

I bought this about 1.5 months ago and I watched every single special feature on it... Including both commentaries. (Well, I didn't watch the network broadcast TV version yet, but maybe I will some day...) Highly recommended if you are a fan of the film. Awesome picture quality too and the special features are "out of this world".

 

The Arrow release is a "brand new restoration from a 4K scan of the original negative, supervised and approved by director John Carpenter and director of photography Dean Cundey." It also has original mono (shouldn't that be 2 channel stereo?) and 5.1 , both HD, audio options.

Based on Arrow's recent track record, I think it highly likely this will be the best home video release to date.

 

"Both commentaries"? Do you mean both new commentaries? There are 3 total on the BD!

 

Well crap I think I missed one of them. Dang! I listened to the new one with Dean Cundey and the older one with Russell and Carpenter.

 

The third commentary is with co-producer Stuart Cohen, and it's actually quite good!

 

Awesome, I'll check it soon! The Cundey one was quite interesting too - especially toward the end when he mentioned his lighting comments regarding the thing.

 

" the 2008 BD? I thought the two discs offered very similar – if not identical – 5.1 mixes, but the 2016 release provided the superior visual experience. While the 2008 disc also looked very good, the 2016 version became a little cleaner and sharper. "

So my 2008 copy, bought in 2009 will suffice. Thanks !

 

Arrow usually does an amazing job with their transfers, and they often include new exclusive extras. Sadly, I don't have a region-free blu player. I really should rectify that.

 

The Cohen commentary is the best of the 3, IMO. The Cundey one is okay but not great...

 

Universal Digital Video Services already did all the work in 4K last year. It's all paid for, it's all on the lot, and Dean Cundey and Carpenter supervised and approved everything.

Dean Cundey is a very nice man who does brilliant work. He has a romantic comedy coming out in a couple of months, Home Again, and it looks spectacular. (All shot on Alexa digital 2K.)

That would be fantastic if they're sitting on tons of deleted scenes and additional material. The Thing is a rare movie that I wish was 20 minutes longer -- it moves at a breakneck pace and there's no breathing room. Scary, scary movie. The whole thing with the dog completely freaked me out when I saw the Blu-ray a few months ago, and I hadn't seen the movie in at least 20 years, probably since the letterboxed Laserdisc.

Alan Howarth's sound effects -- featuring a lotta "gloopy gloppy" stuff -- really help sell the season. The sound throughout was fantastic. It should've been nominated for Oscars for sound editing and sound mixing, but unfortunately was not.

I would not have a problem at all if they included the original 1982 mono, but I think the 5.1 mix I heard sounded fine.

 

Would you believe that I've never seen this movie? Well, believe it. I don't even know what it's about other than the fact that it is apparently about a "Thing," and Kurt Russell is in it. Haven't even read the description. I do want to see it. When I do get around to watching it, I will be going in relatively fresh, without any foreknowledge as to what is going to happen.

 

It's a terrific movie, an interesting take on the original 1951 B&W film (and John Campbell's short story). The movie is really an exercise in paranoia, since basically you can't completely trust anybody in the whole movie. The effects really, really push it over the edge: Carpenter insists to this day that the 1982 Thing did not do well because it was unfortunately released around the same time as E.T., which was a much more upbeat, light-hearted family fantasy, while The Thing was a grim, violent, downbeat R-rated horror film with a whole lotta people dying.

I'm not sure why the movie didn't do better, but I can say I liked it 35 years ago and I still think it works well today. Even with everything that's followed, it's scary AF. I know that Carpenter has considered doing a sequel, but at this point they waited too long and everybody has gotten too much older.

 

Thanks! I'll definitely check it out as soon as I get a chance.

 

Sure, but if hasn't been released on blu-ray yet has it? Arrow wouldn't advertise it as a brand new 4K scan if it was the same 2k scan that Shout Factory put out in the US.