The Thing (1982) - High-Def Digest

[MrChaos]

Peter Bracke on The Thing (1982):

Despite bombing at the box office, 'The Thing' has become the true definition of a cult classic. Fans like me have been waiting for this one to make its HD DVD debut ever since the format launched, and overall I'm pleased with the disc. A solid transfer and soundtrack coupled with tons of great extras (though nothing new) offer real value for money. Perhaps this is not a breathtaking upgrade over the standard-def DVD, but if you love 'The Thing,' can you really say no?

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/thing1982.html

[Jordan_E]

Thanks for the review, although as a fan of The Thing, it was never a matter of if getting this disc, but when.

[Tejstar]

It’s a shame about the missing Dolby TrueHD, but as was pointed out in the thread surround sound wasn’t that used in those days. Looking forward to picking this up, never got round to doing so on DVD!

[MentokTheMindTaker]

Yeah my last dose of The Thing (besides my VHS copy) was the PS2 game that I played for about 5 hours. It was very creepy but the controls were not that great.

<Me shouting into the mic>
Disembodied heads with legs for EVERYONE!

<the crowd>
Hooray!

[twister]

Great review.

I will agree that the video quality is a amazing. It just amazes me that a film from 1982 can look this good. When I watched the film last night I was in awe. This is one of my favorite films from the 80s so I'm psyched it looks so good.

[wickedbob]

Must agree with this review when it comes to color saturation - it is a vast improvement of the DVD that I watched again recently.
One thing that surprised me watching the HDDVD was a constant cycle between blue and yellow shading over the top of the whole image - almost like a wavering - which was more evident in outdoor snow sequences than the night sequences. Anyone else notice this?

[vannostrom]

Just got done watching this and i too saw that blue/yellow hue pulsating throughout the picture. Started noticing it about 45mins into it right up to towards the end.
Great picture otherwise.

By the way sorry to dig up an old thread guys.

[Devil N]

This might be the first movie that I'll buy on HD DVD despite owning a DVD version already. I'm pretty sure it'll be a vast upgrade from the DVD version that I have...

The DVD release I'm talking about encodes the 2.35:1 picture in a letterboxed 4:3 format and manages to place the subtitles at the bottom of this 4:3 image. In other words, it's completely crap for a modern widescreen television. Besides that, the overall PQ is pretty poor as well.

[vannostrom]

You won't be disappointed Devil N it looks so much better than SD.

[Mullicious]

It's amazing how good looking a movie from 1982 can look.

Breathtakingly good.

[oxbladder]

Yeah they did a good job with but not as amazing as 2001. 2001 has to be the best. The SD DVD version didn't even stack up to the VHS so the step to HD is simply stunning.

[don luprie]

One of my favorite out of my HD collection. It never looked so good.

[CaptainArcher]

Though it's been out forever I just picked this up from Fry's and I must agree with ALL here... the video quality is simply amazing, let alone for a movie from '82. Pity the Breakfast Club and Fletch looked nowhere near this clean... I agree with 4 out of 5 for the movie as well as 4.5 for the vid quality. Simply a must.