The proper order to watch The Thing movies

Picture this: a research team in Antarctica discovers an alien spacecraft buried deep in the ice. Despite the fact that winter has set in, the researchers decide to thaw the interior of the ship and stumble upon a creature that is estimated to have crash landed 20 million years ago. This creature, or thingupon awakening covertly assumes the appearance of a crew member, rewriting their personality while retaining their memories. The creature repeats the process over and over, slowly reducing the number of people in the base, violently overtaking their identities. By the time the research team realizes the truth, it's too late, as this alien parasite now looks just like one of them, pretending to be human…

It is the main premise of the 1938 science fiction horror novel Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, who originally published it under the pseudonym Don A. Stewart. Campbell's story expanded on the shape-shifting monster trope, injecting it with imitation and assimilation, blurring the lines between what can be considered human and what can't. Paranoia and mistrust play into the isolation inherent in Cabin Fever's story settings, as the methods to identify and contain these impersonators become increasingly sophisticated over time. These intriguing themes and ideas have also significantly influenced literature and related media since the novel's publication, particularly regarding fictional monsters that threaten the fabric of human connection.

The most direct (and popular) adaptation of Campbell's work is John Carpenter's 1982 cult classic The Thing, which is possibly one of the most influential horror films ever made. However, this is not the only adaptation of the source material, as two other inspired works exist and explore the same premise with distinctly different approaches. The order in which you watch these movies can be fickle based on personal interests, but below is our recommended viewing order to help you get the most out of all of these movies.

Spoilers to follow “Thing” adaptations.

Let's take a quick look at the clock sequence before delving into its reasoning:

• “The Thing” (2011), directed by Matty van Heiningen

• “The Thing” (1982), directed by John Carpenter

• “The Thing from Another World” (1951), directed by Christian Nyby

Although Carpenter's film needed no prequel, Matthias van Heiningen's 2011 horror film of the same name focuses on a disturbing series of events that perfectly set up the beginning of Carpenter's 1982 film. Heiningen's film is set in the winter of 1982 and follows members of a Norwegian research station who find a creature in the ice. The basic beats of Campbell's novel (and Carpenter's film) are included here, but the characters are completely different, as they are meant to be the creature's first victims before it disguises itself as a sled dog. In the 2011 film, we mostly follow Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a paleontologist who leads the investigation only to see the thing's horrific survival instincts as it (quite literally) tears her research group apart. The film then ends with a helicopter chase that leads straight into Carpenter's adaptation, which is next on your watch list.

Carpenter's real focus in “The Thing” is the complex dynamic between the explorers trying to adapt to a terrifying, impossible situation while constantly on the move. Here, the characters' fellow human beings suddenly become “others” and practically do not differ from those whom the researchers consider their colleagues, which heightens the tension and expectations of betrayal at every moment. The oft-discussed ending of “The Thing” also raises difficult questions about autonomy, the preservation of the human race, and how mistrust forever decides the prospect of silver. The uneasy realization that you never can indeed Knowing the true nature of the “other” adds to the film's heady appeal, which works alongside intricately designed practical creature effects that have stood the test of time.

Your final stop is Christian Nyby's 1951 film The Thing from Another World, which takes several artistic liberties while reshaping Campbell's story until it removes key aspects of what makes the novel worthwhile. The core beats of a crashed spacecraft discovered in the ice set the story in motion, but the thaw here is accidental, unleashing a new hell for the experts and researchers at the base. Things only get more complicated from there, with one of the researchers deliberately growing alien plants from seeds taken from the creature's severed arm (!) and infusing it with blood plasma. As the film undercuts the novel, it also takes some wild turns before rushing to an underwhelming conclusion.

While Nyby's version offers its signature thrills and scares, it lacks substance (much like 2011's The Thing, which uses scant CGI to represent the titular creature). However, if you're interested in seeing a pre-Carpenter adaptation of The Thing, the 1951 version does a decent job of expanding on the story's well-worn premise.

If we look beyond these three films, it becomes clear that the influence of Campbell's Arctic horror story has extended to video games, comics, and modern literature, offering new perspectives while reinventing the familiar narrative in significant ways. A good example is Peter Watts' acclaimed short story The Things, which is told entirely from the perspective of an alien creature and in turn forces the reader into a worldview that seems truly strange and disconnected from humanity's perception of reality. What makes it all the more interesting is the way Watts uses Carpenter's film as a basis for this suffocating, repulsive perspective, each character scrutinized through the creature's eyes (which blaze with truths deemed unknown). As the events of the plot come to an inevitable conclusion, we witness a being who plays god, colonizer, religious missionary, and ruthless explorer. Now it is a story worth adapting.