Comments by "Seven Proxies" (@sevenproxies4255) on "Horrifyingly Good - The Thing (1982)" video.

That scene when they catch Bennings with his arm mutated out in the snow, and Bennings let out that otherworldly scream... Hands down, the most haunting scene in the entire film. I remember thinking that his face looks deceptively human, but whatever is lurking behind his eyes is something else entirely.
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I heard that the actor that played Kurt Russels Beard.. Also played Chewbacca in the Star Wars films.
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@Dr. Freeman Just so. Hard to achieve that effect in a scene. You have to get in that sense of "the alien and the unknown". Works wonders for horror if you can pull it off, but not many can.
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@Lord_Deimos To be perfectly honest, I found that scene to be more scary than the gore and special effects. The FX look great and very artistic. But to me they were more of a spectacle. Thing-Bennings resonated on a deeper level. I think it has something to do with that sense of unease that is caused by seeing a familiar human form, yet not getting familiar human vibes from it. I remember the creature designs in the Silent Hill games also did that very successfully in many instances. The monsters are humanoids, but utterly inhuman at the same time. Like the Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2. That metal helmet cover his entire head and most of the upper body. It "could" be a human in a suit. But your imagination kicks in trying to figure out what might be hidden under that massive helmet, and you just know that there's nothing human underneath it. Alien also played off this, even though we do get to see the xenomorphs a lot in the sequels. In the first film you mostly only caught brief glimpses of it. Letting your imagination fill in the awful blanks. Like I said, hard to pull off. The design choices and cinematography requires a lot of subtlety and planning.
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