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The Thing (1982)
The Thing (1982) poster
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4.3

The Thing (1982)

Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction • 1h 48m

Overview

In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Soon unfrozen, the form-changing creature wreaks havoc, creates terror... and becomes one of them.

Director: John Carpenter

Best English-Friendly Release

Universal 4K Blu-ray. Maybe Turbine Blu-ray instead for better audio?

Best Video Release

Best Audio Release

Format

UHD Blu-ray

UHD Tiers

Solid
Universal:

caveat: great video, controversial new 4.0 sound mix

TSPDT

2026: #208
2025: #211
2024: #211
2023: #217
2022: #217

Length

108 mins

Type

Movie

Alternative Titles

John Carpenter's The Thing

Last Updated

7 months ago

Contributors

Best English-Friendly Release

Universal 4K Blu-ray. Maybe Turbine Blu-ray instead for better audio?

Best Video Release
Best Audio Release
Format
UHD Blu-ray
UHD Tiers
Solid
Universal:

caveat: great video, controversial new 4.0 sound mix

Featured Lists
TSPDT
2026: #208
2025: #211
2024: #211
2023: #217
2022: #217
Length
108 mins
Type
Movie
Alternative Titles
John Carpenter's The Thing
Last Updated
7 months ago
Contributors

Featured in National Film Registry

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Upcoming Release:

Capelight 4K announced for 2026

Best Video:

Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has slightly better compression than Criterion 4K Blu-ray.

The master in DV looks all but identical to the Criterion’s HDR grade. Detail-wise, FiM’s encode looks like it uncovered a tiny bit of extra high-frequency information that got filtered on the Criterion. See nicolas review

Best Audio:

1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1993 MGM LaserDisc/2002 R2 MGM DVD are the best. See blah-ray https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2018/01/raging-bull-1980.html

Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has better audio than Criterion 4K Blu-ray, from nicolas:

I believe that what’s on Imprint’s 4K is one of the good mixes MGM and Criterion released during the LaserDisc days. Music is powerful and detailed, dialogues have excellent fidelity and ambient sounds have perceptible depth. I compared the "new" 2.0 with the anemic 5.1 as well as the Criterion 4K mix and could clearly hear the improvements.

Best English-Friendly:

Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Capelight 4K announced for 2026

Best Video:

Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has slightly better compression than Criterion 4K Blu-ray.

The master in DV looks all but identical to the Criterion’s HDR grade. Detail-wise, FiM’s encode looks like it uncovered a tiny bit of extra high-frequency information that got filtered on the Criterion. See nicolas review

Best Audio:

1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1993 MGM LaserDisc/2002 R2 MGM DVD are the best. See blah-ray https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2018/01/raging-bull-1980.html

Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has better audio than Criterion 4K Blu-ray, from nicolas:

I believe that what’s on Imprint’s 4K is one of the good mixes MGM and Criterion released during the LaserDisc days. Music is powerful and detailed, dialogues have excellent fidelity and ambient sounds have perceptible depth. I compared the "new" 2.0 with the anemic 5.1 as well as the Criterion 4K mix and could clearly hear the improvements.

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Additional Info:

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Criterion US 4K Blu-ray

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Best Audio:

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Paramount Blu-ray

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Best Video:

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Best Audio:

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Paramount Blu-ray

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Best Video:

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Best Video:

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Best English-Friendly:

4K Streaming

Best Video:

4K Streaming has Dolby Vision and is a newer significantly better restoration see caps comparing against Fox Blu-ray

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Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray

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As for the color grade, unsure whether the Italy or US/UK Blu-ray is more accurate to the theatrical colors.

Best Audio:

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Additional Info:

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Best Video:

Italy Koch Media Blu-ray is not stretched compared to US Shout! Factory and UK Arrow Blu-rays

As for the color grade, unsure whether the Italy or US/UK Blu-ray is more accurate to the theatrical colors.

Best Audio:

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Additional Info:

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Best Video:

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5.0 surround remix: 2009 Shout! Factory US Blu-ray

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There has been no replacement disc announced. See nicwood's BR post.

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Best English-Friendly:

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Best Video:

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Best Audio:

Original matrixed DTS Stereo mix: 2026 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
5.0 surround remix: 2009 Shout! Factory US Blu-ray

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There has been no replacement disc announced. See nicwood's BR post.

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Best Video:

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Arrow has done additional cleanup work removing nearly all the damage in the transfer. They have massaged the color timing and HDR to try and improve what they could. The Capelight may have better encoding but it does not have these improvements. The Arrow encoding is solid and in motion there are no issues whatsoever. The Kino release has the damage and other issues plus frequent noise due to the lesser encoding.

Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some better in the Capelight.

Best Audio:

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow  4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LD track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout BDs was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LD audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.

Capelight and old Arrow BD included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.

The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.

Best English-Friendly:

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Best Video:

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Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some better in the Capelight.

Best Audio:

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow  4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LD track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout BDs was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LD audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.

Capelight and old Arrow BD included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.

The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.

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Best English-Friendly:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

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UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

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Best Video:

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Upcoming Release:

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Best Video:

Warner Bros Blu-ray

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The Thing (1982) backdrop