The Sci-Fi 25: The Genre's Best Since 1982

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10. THE THING (1982)
Directed by John Carpenter

Recently, there's been talk in Hollywood of remaking The Thing. Please don't. For the love of God, we're begging you. After all, this streamlined exercise in subzero paranoia cannot be improved upon. A badass and bearded Kurt Russell stars as R.J. MacReady, the unofficial leader of a team of scientists in the Antarctic whose camp is infiltrated by an alien who kills, then inhabits the bodies of its victims. As the crew is offed one by one, Carpenter's movie becomes a war of attrition — and a gory war at that. When one of the eggheads (Charles Hallahan) is body-snatched, his severed head sprouts spider legs and scurries across the room, while one of the scientists looks on in disbelief: ''You gotta be f---in' kidding!'' A flop when it was released, The Thing has, with time, been reappraised as a masterpiece. A masterpiece that Tinseltown shouldn't even think of messing with.

POP CULTURE LEGACY Rob Bottin's trailblazing gross-out effects work is still the holy grail for monster-makeup geeks everywhere.

THE BEST BIT Wilford Brimley's crotchety Blair going loco when he's quarantined. You'll never look at a bowl of Quaker Oats the same way again. —Chris Nashawaty