It's June 1982, and sci-fi fans heading to movie theaters have a choice to make. On one screen, they can watch a feel-good family movie about a kindly alien who befriends a bunch of kids and makes their bikes fly. On the other they can check out a nihilistic horror about a dozen stir-crazy men at an Antarctic research station, who find themselves fighting for their lives — and the future of planet Earth — when an unwelcome visitor from outer space comes to stay.
The first film was, of course, "ET: The Extra-Terrestrial", which went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time — a title it held until its director, Steven Spielberg, broke his own record with "Jurassic Park" a decade later. The other was John Carpenter's "The Thing", a Universal stablemate that turned out to be a major critical and commercial disappointment. Its bleak story and visceral body horror were apparently a turn-off for audiences who preferred their aliens house-trained and non-lethal.
