The Thing

John Carpenter’s masterpiece tells the story of a group of scientific researchers in Antarctica who find themselves trapped in their research centre with a shape-shifting alien. Revelatory special effects notwithstanding, it’s the film’s masterful building and guiding of tension throughout that makes it so undeniable a classic — tension largely aided by Morricone’s stripped down, synth heavy score, which perfectly captures the cold claustrophobia and creeping dread. Carpenter, like many directors of the time, was a huge fan of Morricone and used his previous successes to up the ante and bring the great man in, despite being an accomplished synth-scorer of his own films in his own right. This fact did not, by most accounts, make this an easy collaboration, but certainly a hugely successful one!