Thing from Another World

The Thing From Another World is probably one of the most influential sci-fi horror films in history. It pretty much single handedly kicked-off the whole genre of 50s sci-fi. Seriously — it pre-dated all the other sci-fi titans like Forbidden Planet, Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, When Worlds Collide, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and more! In the 1940s, sci-fi films were more about mad scientists — The Thing From Another World helped re-center the genre squarely into the space race! Then 30 years later it influenced a whole other generation of directors and moviegoers when John Carpenter remade it as simply “The Thing“ with Kurt Russell. Amazingly, after all this the original still stands strong for its tight plot, rapidfire-Howard-Hawks-influenced dialog, and most importantly, the way it respected both the institutions of science and the military to have a truly thought provoking discussion about first contact.

It’s hard to state just how amazingly rare this original UK quad is. I only know of one other example in private hands. While clearly influenced by the original US marketing materials, the horizontally oriented quad format improved on the design — the drippy, oozing THE THING title just dominates the poster!