With “The Thing” still being my all-time favorite movie after all these years, I knew I had to check this out, despite my initial qualms about having to endure RapidShare in order to download it…but the wait was worth it.

Much like the Thing itself, Tranzor has morphed this classic flick into an entirely new monster; a fusion of different eras in both the horror and sci-fi genres. While the FX of “The Thing” would have been impossible in the fifties and sixties (a span of time that Tranzor’s “vintage” presentation of this movie strives to represent), I was never cognizant of such details as I watched it. It almost felt like a new movie; a classic from the fifties or sixties that was aired on a local television program in the early eighties and recorded on a VCR.

I only have two minor gripes, but they’re more like suggestions and they have nothing to do with Tranzor’s work on this edit. For one, I would like to see Megaupload mirrors for the DVD files. If it wasn’t for my established love of this movie beforehand, I may not have spent an entire day downloading it from RapidShare, which makes you wait 30 minutes in between files if you’re not a premium (paying) user. The other is the DVD artwork. I like it as it is, but I think new DVD artwork based on the banner art for this particular edit (found at http://www.fanedit.org/forums/content.php?82-Tranzor-Banner) would really rock the house.

In closing, I have to say that this edit is a fun new way to watch “The Thing.” This will certainly be in my DVD player again around Halloween. Excellent job, Tranzor.

Review by Captain Khajiit

I have often felt nostalgic for television from a bygone era, so I fully understood the faneditor’s intention. The concept for the edit was great, and the implementation did it justice. Anyone who watches this edit will be left in no doubt that the faneditor knew what he wanted to achieve and exactly how to achieve it. The attention to detail in this edit was most impressive: from the pan-and-scan image to the noisy black-and-white print, everything was in place. The result was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Video
All the changes to the video worked well, and the quality is what it should have been given the faneditor’s intention. The only point that I might raise is that the lines that were added to the print seemed to be somewhat overused, though it might well be that this was a limitation of the filter and beyond the faneditor’s control.
9 out of 10

Audio
The scratchy record track effect was well implemented. Again, I sometimes felt that it was a little overused, but I have no real complaints.
9 out of 10

Presentation
Everything was fine. There is appropriate cover art and a particularly pleasing “live” menu that set the mood for the edit perfectly. I smiled when I saw it because it was so delightfully fitting.
9 out of 10

Editing and Entertainment
The editing was seamless except where it wasn’t meant to be! I have rarely seen a fanedit that has successfully transformed a film to this extent. In accordance with the title, I watched this late at night and was fully entertained. I cannot think of anything else that the faneditor could have done. The old commercials were the icing on the cake!
10 out of 10

Overall rating: it’s a rare 10 out of 10 from me.

Watch Tranzor’s The Thing late at night and you’re in for a treat.

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.

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!

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.

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?

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.

“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

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.

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!)

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.