Every year we have a tradition in the Forto house where we celebrate the greatest month of the year, October, with scare your socks off, hide under the covers, turn on all the lights, sleep with one eye open, fright fest, movie marathon every night of the month! We call it 31 Days of Horror.
31 Days of Horror: The Thing
Day 12 Movie: The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter is one of my favorite directors. He has directed some great horror flicks including the original Halloween (1978), Vampires, The Fog (1981), Prince of Darkness (1987) and other pretty good flicks such as Starman, Escape from New York, Assault on Prescient 13 among others.
The Thing is a typical sci-fi thriller but this is a bit different than most, it has (what appears to be) a team of sled dogs, pretty good looking Malamutes if I might add. The film stars Kurt Russell and the guy that played the captain the cop show, Hunter, in the 1980’s Charles Hallahan.
Charles Hallahan
But lets get to the real star of the movie: Wilford Brimley. Brimley stars as Dr. Blair and should get top billing in this film not Kurt Russell! Brimley started in Hollywood the right way, doing stunts and shoeing horses on Western films, and even a bodyguard for Howard Hughes, but at the urging of his good buddy, Robert Duvall he tried out acting and has been a fixture on the silver screen and in our homes ever since.
Wilford Brimley
Brimley is best known for now for those folksy Liberty Medical commercials and back in the day as the spokesman for Quaker Oats Oatmeal, but if you are a student of pop culture like me you would know that he starred in probably the corniest television show ever on the air: Our House.
The show was about a family where Gus Witherspoon played by Brimley played a father figure to the three kids David (Chad Allen) and Kris played by Shannen Doherty before she blossomed into Beverly Hills 90210. I don’t remember the other kids’ name. Does it really matter?
According to Wikipedia: A unique quality Our House possessed was that each segment of the episode culminated in one freeze frame moment, which would then occupy one of the rooms in the “house” on the screen just before the commercial break. When the episode’s dilemma was resolved, all the pieces of the puzzle would fit together, and the house would be “full” of the drama the family went through that particular week.
Our House
I digress. Back to The Thing…
Plot: An American scientific expedition to the frozen wastes of the Antarctic is interrupted by a group of seemingly mad Norwegians pursuing and shooting a dog. The helicopter pursuing the dog crashes leaving no explanation for the chase. During the night, the dog mutates and attacks other dogs in the cage and members of the team that investigate. The team soon realizes that an alien life-form with the ability to take over other bodies is on the loose and they don’t know who may already have been taken over.
What is your favorite scary an/or Halloween movie? I would love to hear from you!
Day 1 Movie: Trick ‘r Treat
Day 2 Movie: The Exorcist
Day 3 Movie: Nosferatu
Day 4 Movie: White Zombie
Day 5 Movie: The Serpent and the Rainbow
Day 6 Movie: Creepshow 2
Day 7 Movie: The House of 1000 Corpses
Day 8 Movie: The Blob
Day 9 Movie: The Devils Rejects
Day 10 Movie: The Shinning
Day 11 Movie: The Omen
Day 12 Movie: The Thing
Robert Forto | Team Ineka | Alaska Dog Works | Mushing Radio | Dog Doctor Radio | Denver Dog Works
___________________
Dr. Robert Forto is a musher training for his first Iditarod under the Team Ineka banner and the host of the popular radio shows, Mush! You Huskies and The Dog Doctor Radio Show
Fortos' Fort 
October 14, 2010 at 11:56 am
Wilford Brimley is America’s Grandpa! I loved that guy.