The plot revolves around a military operation in the north pole concerning a UFO that went down in the artic. Upon investigation the crew accidently blow up the craft but find the frozen remains of the alien nearby the site and take it back, with the intention of testing it. However the "Thing" thaws out faster than they'd anticipated and escapes the military facility and slaughters a couple of military dogs in the snow, but not without the dogs removing an arm off the "thing" which is taken back to be tested. Upon testing it is determined the arm belongs to a creature not of this world composed of materials closer to plant life than human flesh and blood. However the "Thing" can change shape and mimic humans which it does and then its up to the rest of the defence force personell on the base to stop the thing before it wastes them.
The movie itself is quite reasonable when considering it is a B & W feature directed in the early 50s. I have to say I found it quite enjoyable for what it is, but unfortunately it doesn't stand up against the later version done by John Carpenter (which I'd already seen) but like many movies of this era I still think its worth watching if only as a historical reference and to see how far Carpenter took the film. I should also qualify this by admitting I'm not a huge fan of science fiction and while this film was rated the best sci-fi of its year and is quite highly regarded, I Just found it a little slow going. The film itself has very little horror, as lets face it most films of the time would have done, it also would have been cool to see the "Thing" a little more (though I guess the special FX standards of the time wouldn't have done it justice). This is by no means a bad film, I was just a little underwhelmed by it after having seen the 1982 version.
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