Do you think the special effects got carried away maybe?

I read that a lot of critics thought that when the movie first came out and I kind of see the point maybe.

I mean there is no subtle build up much to what The Thing is, or what is going to happen. The very first shot in the movie is of an alien spacecraft, so we know the Thing is an alien right off the bat.

Then later, when the characters lock up the dog, with the other dogs, we see close up shots of the thing transform right away. It would have been more of a creepy build up to actually tell the story from the humans point of view, and show no opening shots of spacecrafts.

And instead of showing the dog transform, just have the humans hear barking and go outside and then see what is happening from their point of view.

What do you think? Do you think it could have used a slower Hitchcockian build up in the first act, rather than making it so obvious maybe?