‘Thing’ repeats itself in prequel

“The Thing” is being billed as a prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter classic of the same name, but don’t be fooled: This is essentially the same movie (except for the final 15 minutes; more on those later). No wonder the filmmakers didn’t even bother to come up with a different title.

Once again, we are back in Antarctica, on a remote base where a group of Norwegian and American researchers discover a spacecraft that’s been buried inside a glacier for 100,000 years – and its unearthly, exceedingly ugly pilot frozen in a block of ice nearby, apparently long dead.

The minute the ice begins to melt, though, the researchers (including Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen and Eric Christian Olsen) find out the alien is still very much alive and has the ability to genetically duplicate whoever it eats and hop from host to host like a virus.

Paranoia quickly sets in after the crew realizes any one of them could be the thing in human disguise. Flame throwers – the only truly effective weapon against the monster – become invaluable. A test is performed to determine who is infected and who is still human. The researchers turn on each other.

Does any of this sound familiar? If you saw Carpenter’s film, it should: Screenwriter Eric Heisserer (whose previous credits include “Final Destination 5” and the ineffectual “Nightmare on Elm Street” remake) settles for stealing most of the best moments from the original movie, bringing shockingly little that’s new to the story until the end.

And although first-time director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. acquits himself admirably at using the confined spaces and hallways of the base for suspense and thrills, the special effects rely too heavily on CGI to be anywhere near as frightening as Rob Bottin’s groundbreaking, hair-raising creations from the 1982 version.

Still, most of “The Thing” makes for a tolerable homage to Carpenter’s film – until the climactic sequence, as ill-conceived a finale as following Richard Dreyfuss inside the mothership at the end of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Special Edition.”

If you’ve never seen “The Thing” – and you really should – stick with the genuine 1982 article and skip this elaborate act of mimicry.