Tranzor’s The Thing – late night tv edit
by Tranzor and DECI wanted to make an edit similar in style to how television stations (US) would present horror/sci-fi movies back in the 1970’s to early 80’s. This is mainly for the older crowd who can recall the days of Chiller Theater and other tv horror movie hosted shows that have truly disappeared off the airwaves.
member ratings:
(13 votes, average: 9.23 out of 10, rated)
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FILM NAME: John Carpenter’s The thing
NEW NAME: Tranzor’s The Thing – late night tv edit
RUNNING TIME: 109mins
NEW RUNNING TIME: 82 mins (72 mins film, 10 mins commercials and tv logos)
WHAT WAS DONE:
- edited JC”s the thing down to 72 mins and made it black and white (altered the film a bit as well)
- Zoomed in on the widescreen picture to make a new pan/scan image
- added lots of film grain and other such noise to give it that old shitty print look.
- added “old scratchy record” effects to the sound to give it that feeling of a rotting 16mm film
- Added Channel 7 ABC’s Saturday night movie intro (early 80’s)
- added in four 1-3 min commercial sets from 1981
- added in WOR-TV chan 9 “fright night” cut aways before and after each commercial break
- borrowed RKO logo and minor music from the 1933 King kong for help wih my titles
- Edited the movie for gore/cursing, or anything else that would not fly on tv back then
- edited and changed the ending to strongly resemble a 1950’s sci-fi film send-off
IMPORTANT INFO:
- What some of you may not understand is that back in those days (70’s-early 80’s), television stations would show really crappy print quality horror and sci-fi films. You did not have dvd transfers for TV or anything else (vcrs were NOT COMMON). Also TV stations would REALLY BUTCHER most of these prints down due to content or running time or both. Sometimes characters in movies would disappear for no reason or you would get things hacked or see frames missing ,etc. Like grindhouse but on TV instead. You have to keep this in mind when viewing my edit (and again this is why it is aimed more towards the older crowd who will remember those days). I made this to look and feel as if you really were watching this on TV back then late at night. This is how it actually would have been presented. TV changed towards the mid 80’s and on and became a bit more liberal and also restored some of the films they would show (and a lot of the other films we used to see have never aired again since those days).
MENU: live
NUMBER INVOLVED: 1
TIME IT TOOK: 3 days
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IMAGES:
cover art by tranzor (download here):
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slim:
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Forget what you know about John Carpenter’s THE THING. It has no place here.
Tranzor has succeeded in taking a modern classic and almost, almost making it his very own, and I don’t use those words lightly. You see, I’m a guy that 9 times out of 10 likes the original version of whatever I see, hear or read. It’s a cancerous growth that sometimes just sucks the living fun out of EVERYTHING. Yes…I know Carpenter’s THE THING is basically a remake of THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, though it went back to the original source material rather than the B-film from the 50’s. Carpenter succeeded so well in the storytelling because he loved what he was doing and had a clear vision of how to make it fresh again.
To his credit, Tranzor’s THE THING – LATE NIGHT TV EDIT is like a breath mint on a -40 degree winter night.
He, like myself and at least several others out there, grew up watching many old horror films late night on the weekends. You know the ones WAY past bedtime and beyond permission granted by over-bearing parents. On those occasions the popcorn would be all ready in a bowl, the sodas chilled to perfection and TV’s would be on as loud as the room would keep it from drifting too far into parental ears. Anticipation of a creepy fun time (and future nightmares) would build while the intro to the movie would begin. And Tranzor manages to recapture this feeling all with a simple but effective menu.
Let me assure you, once PLAY has been pressed you won’t want to move a muscle. As I’ve said earlier, forget what you know about John Carpenter’s THE THING. It has no place here. A sense of mystery taken away from years of multiple viewings has been immediately restored. More engrossing is the fact you are looking at a “local tv station” transfer of already misused and degraded film material, just like they found it on the last shelf near the garbage bin. And, God bless you for this Tranzor, just when the going gets good…..
COMMERCIAL BREAK!
Promises of clean hair, the newest LP from your favorite band, not to mention some very hungry hippos only make you want to be terrified even more! Once it comes back, you are exactly where you left off; wondering who will survive and what will be left of them?!? I could be a “Harry Knowles” and spoil all the fun, but that’s like pissing in the wind…
To “borrow” a quote from a famous author;
I have seen the future of true fanedits, and his name is Tranzor.
Review by InvisibleWolfMan — November 27, 2007 @ 6:44 pm
MESSENJAH14 WROTE:
I’m giving this 4/5. Brilliant idea, and greatly executed. The pacing was “perfect” in the sense that Tranzor near perfectly captured the mood that he wanted to catch. Why 4 instead of a 5? well, the DVD was kinda lackluster, I mean for me atleast english subtitles are really helpful to understand the movie, but there’s also one thing that bugged me about the edit itself: The audio. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but in most of the old movies, all the dialogue is rather high pitched. I would’ve wanted that from this aswell in order to entirely recreate the mood of the old tv programming. But this is definately the best fanedit I’ve seen (and it’s also the third I’ve watched!)
Review by tranzor — February 11, 2008 @ 11:41 pm
Not being an American it is hard for me to feel nostalgic for an era of television I never experienced. This FanEdit version of John Carpenter’s The Thing appears to me like an experiment in the Grindhouse vain.
The degradation of the image is well done but the constant popping is too obviously a vinyl record rather than film crackling. Also this effect is needed only at the beginning of each scene, to establish it, and then it should inaudibly fade out as the constancy of the popping become tiresome. The image plays more like a poor video reproduction than a television broadcast.
I feel an opportunity to instill more humor into this FanEdit was missed. The eradication of the profanity was funny in itself but an overall upping of the comedic level, say in the editing techniques used by Monty Python in their classic Holy Grail, would have made this FanEdit more rewarding and possibly hilarious. For example, I was waiting for the lip syncing to go out of time at a key moment or a reception failure and apology title card during a climactic scene. Maybe a scene could play inexplicably for a few seconds with the Japanese vocal soundtrack or the continuity of a scene ruined with some playful editing. I would have loved to have seen sudden images of, say an erotic movie suddenly pop up as if this version was taped over and old vhs cassette and the original image is bleeding through.
The highlight of this FanEdit are the commercial breaks which are inspired and set the tone for more comedic content. Maybe I am missing the point but if people want the story of the John Carpenters The Thing they would just watch the original. This FanEdit needs that something special to make it stand on it’s own.
I am not sure who the audience is for something like this but as I have said: turning this FanEdit into an avert comedy rather than a homage to a bygone era, would widen the audience.
Review by Rock Savage — April 8, 2008 @ 3:43 pm
Rock Savage,
Thank you for honest review, I do appreciate it. However you did sum everything up with your opening line:
“Not being an American it is hard for me to feel nostalgic for an era of television I never experienced”
Sadly I did have a specific target audience in mind (I mentioned the older crowd in my main description). I know a lot of people online and in life in general who loved those older days of TV. Or more or less it brought them back top a special time. Editing and creating my edit in this fashion is exactly what I wanted and had achieved.
Changing this into more comedy was not my intention. What I presented to is roughly 99% accurate of how bad these films were butchered on air, mostly by local stations who have since vanished. Though I do love the slight comparison to Monty Python humor and yes I too found it funny removing the curse words.
This is where the culture bias comes into play. You would have to be older (mid-late 30’s) and from the US to fully appreciate this edit. I wish I could take you back in time to show you some of the schlock presentations of films they would provide for us back then.
I did try my best to find true film audio scratch noise. This is also where the culture bias plays a role. Most older US TV films had that sound throughout the entire feature and not
just during the opening of scenes. In fact last night fearnet (digital channel) showed the 1977 film Haunting of Julia aka full circle) and sure enough the audio scratch played a role for the entire film.
Summing it up, yes it is a some what biased edit towards a specific crowd and unfortunately because of this many people (which includes yourself) did not fully understand or receive the edit’s intention
Review by tranzor — September 4, 2008 @ 11:40 pm
Thank you for this edit. You did a great job. It took me back to when I was a kid. The timing on the ‘cuts’ in the film were perfect. The intro, ending, and commercial breaks just added to the fun. The only thing missing was either an appearance by Bob Wilkins or John Stanley. If you know who those men are you already know what I’m talking about.
Again, thank you for taking your time to make this edit. It honors an already great film with a really fun way to watch it again.
Review by TCGames — June 19, 2009 @ 4:22 pm
I grew up in the 80s and experienced this type of late-night TV (it still existed on cable, of which I grew up on – never had “rabbit ears” for TV).
I definintely liked the idea of this edit and was very eager to watch this after I downloaded it and transferred it to my HD TiVo.
The execution is great and the edits very prefect; loved the old school TV commercials (we had the same type of local commericlas in Oklahoma where I grew up).
I agree with one of the other reviewers – the constant “popping” and simulation of poor quality film was to much, less of it throughout would make this a better watch.
This was more enjoyable as a trip down memory lane than watching the actual film – but that was the point of the movie, right?
Review by flyboy707 — December 14, 2009 @ 9:31 pm
Ok, I love the crappy quality effect that was done to the film (pan & scan + print damage). I turned down the lights and watching this I felt like it was 30 years ago and I was a kid again staying up to watch something I wasn’t allowed to see. The only difference is it wasn’t 3 in the morning because I had work the next day. I enjoyed the way the editor cut out the bad words and gore and it reminded me of many films I watched that were butchered when they aired on tv during prime time. When I would watch movies like RABID or SHIVERS at 3 in the morning, they would be complete. I’m in Canada and I don’t remember chiller theatre since maybe it wasn’t broadcast in my neck of the woods but I can still appreciate what the editor set out to do and I think he did a great job. Watching all those old commercials was also a riot. It was great to see one of my favorite films in a different light & b&w worked really well for this classic. Great job!
Review by Goremeister — March 5, 2010 @ 10:44 pm
Great edit.
Love the commercials! Hungry Hungry Hippos baby!
This ranks up there with TMBTM’s grindhouse Jaws and Star Wars edits.
Grab all 3 and have a grindhouse movie night!
9/10
But I’m still sad that I missed that comic book convention that was advertised.
Review by zeppelinrox — March 20, 2010 @ 12:30 am
First of all, I wish I had gotten this LONG ago! I loved it! This was a great movie to do over in this style. The feel of it was perfect, from the darkness, to the hard cuts, to the odd choices for commercial breaks, etc… (nice ads, too. I remembered a couple of them) Everything clicked.
I’m going to be highly recommending this for sure! I’ll give it a well deserved 9/10.
P.S. If you can, try to catch “Off Beat Cinema” (http://www.offbeatcinema.com/), which I catch Saturday nights on the Buffalo ABC affiliate. It is hosted by beatniks in black and white and features mostly old black and white oddities, many being 50’s sci-fi schlock. It’s very much in the vein of this edit, just without chopping up the movies like they used to. Fun stuff!
Review by Ripplin — April 16, 2010 @ 7:05 am
review by tylerdurden389
Been meaning to watch this for probably close to a year. Watched it just now. I LOVED it!! The new opening is a great way to get the story going. The new ending was also a great way to get to the conclusion faster. The commercials are what did it for me. It was definitely cool seeing commercials for stores based in NYC since that’s where I’m from.
My only dislike was presenting this in black and white. I was really looking forward to see the grainy-ness and color deterioration. Now, I understand that since the original is in black and white, maybe that’s what you were going for. Then again, I was born in 1984, so I obviously can’t connect with what you’re aiming for from a nostalgic viewpoint. However, what attracted me to this fan edit is my obsession for nostalgia. I loved Grindhouse. I can still remember the commercials and tv station logos for movies I watched as a kid that my mom taped off of tv. Also because this is one of my favorite movies of course.
Anyway, overall this was a great edit. 9/10.
Review by tranzor — June 28, 2010 @ 6:51 am