The Thing (1982) vs Alien (1979)

Alien. It’s a more serious horror with a nasty atmosphere so thick you can choke on it, and the creature is an amazingly creepy huge, black, phallic insect. There’s a sense that humans are sensitive creatures at the mercy of a hostile unknown universe, hideous alien creatures, murderous androids, and each other.

The Thing is a fun splatter movie with a cool central concept, it’s closer to Predator in tone.

Alien makes your skin crawl, The Thing makes you puke.

Better as in, which alien is more dangerous to humanity?

The Thing

Better as in, which movie was more financially successful?

Alien

My humble opinion
Acting- tie
Story - tie
Visual effects - Alien
Atmosphere- Alien
Soundtrack -Alien
Ending- Thing

You also have to give bonus points to Alien for originality and the studio to have the balls to make such a flick.

Such a unusual movie had no guarantee of success. You could argue that if it flopped, The Thing remake would have never been made.

You could also view The Thing as trying to 'one up' Alien.

**out of the two movies I probably watched The Thing more.

Both would make my top 10 SF movies ever but I have to go with Alien. It is a masterpiece.

Alien is great but I don't think Alien has aged all that well. Many of its tropes and ideas that were then fresher are now very cliche and predictable. I remember being pretty dissapointed by the movie when I first saw it as a kid because I predicted every single major incident, character death, and even how the film ends before they happened. The Thing, however, has gotten even scarier over the years. So, even though The Thing is my choice, I will admit Alien has the better production design and overall look.

Tough call. Both are great.

Agree with the above poster, The Thing has an amazing score. Ennio Moricone.

Alien has a great cast. The Thing right there with it.

The Alien in Alien has to be the greatest alien design in film. The effects in The Thing tho, when the dogs. Just crazy.

That is a tough one. They are very close; almost too close to call.

For creature design, set design, and all around acting Alien gets the edge. I think it is pretty reasonable to say Alien is objectively the better film and had much more cultural impact.

But for me I prefer The Thing specifically because of the atmosphere of paranoia between the characters and the overall effectiveness of the claustrophobia.

The are both very effective in use of mystery (you don't really know the origins of either creature) but the fact that the alien in The Thing assimilates other creatures and it 'could be anyone' adds something that the idea of a single alien monster hiding and waiting to strike just does not have.

The Thing.

The Thing (1982) is amazing but Alien (1979) is sheer perfection.

I don't think a single film can top Alien. Some can come very close to matching it and are on roughly equal footing, The Thing being one of them, but I couldn't put another film above Alien. It wins any vs match up.