For most horror aficionados, 1982's The Thing was the last great film from director John Carpenter. Sure, Big Trouble in Little China followed it, and although it was a lot of fun, tonally it was completely different.

Like many films now termed 'modern classics', the film didn't do all that well at the box office on release. It wasn't helped by going up against a film about a cute little alien landing on Earth and wanting to phone home, which dominated box offices worldwide.

However, the word soon spread when it was released on a format known as VHS that would play back films at home on tape, of all things. Talk about the crazy eighties.

Somehow it joined a very small group of films that are deemed somehow untouchable when it comes to being remade. Despite the same title, this is actually a prequel to the events that took place in the first film, so much so that its ending leads smoothly into the opening scene of the original.

The film benefits twofold by being a prequel: not only does it not rub fans of John Carpenter's version up the wrong way, but it gives them an incentive to go see someone else's interpretation of how the whole Thing thing started.

It's 1982, and another harsh Antarctic winter is set to kick in. Three Norwegians in a Snowcat soon find themselves in a precarious situation when their vehicle plummets into a large crack in the ice. It transpires they've made an incredible discovery, that of a spaceship and an alien specimen of some kind. The Norwegian scientists at their base contact Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), an American palaeontologist, who they believe can help them with their find.

Not long after, Kate finds herself flown in by fellow Americans Carter (Joel Edgerton) and Jameson (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), to join the rest of the Norwegian team, back at their base, with a giant ice cube with an alien inside it. Despite her protests, Dr. Sadner Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen) insists that a tissue sample is taken of the creature.

While some of the team let their hair down, Jameson wanders off, finding himself in the room with the giant alien ice cube. When he hears the ice begin to crack, he starts to think something is up. His concern is confirmed when the being breaks out of its ice prison and leaps up into the roof. It appears that the camp may have a bit of a problem on its hands.

They end up tracking it down and killing it, putting an end to what could have been a potentially dangerous situation. But when Kate does an autopsy on the corpse, she discovers that the creature had been imitating the cells of one of its victims. With the sudden realisation that the creature can take on human form, it dawns on Kate that they're not quite out of the icy tundra just yet.

As you can see the PowerMate 2000 can easily drill through ice...

Although this film is a bone fide prequel, the whole film is eerily similar to the original. Obviously the location doesn't help matters. The Norwegian base from the first film is replicated here, so there's already a heavy dose of déjà vu.

And then you have the premise itself: a bunch of scientists being taken out by an alien being. Like the alien from the film itself, this version has taken the identity of the original.

This makes it increasingly difficult for Matthijs van Heijningen Jr, who also makes his directorial debut, to stamp any kind of originality on this film. Even the fact that the cast is pretty much made of unknowns is eerily similar to the first.

What he therefore has to rely on, then, is to attempt to make the shocks that little bit more shocky. He's hindered in this area too however, as the original carried an 18 rating, whereas this is only a 15. Obviously you can get away with a lot more now than you could almost thirty years ago, but there are still things you can't get away with for a 15 certificate.

In terms of creating an atmosphere of tension and isolation, the director nails it. He also manages the odd jumpy moment, but for the most part, this prequel still isn't as scary as the original. Part of the problem is the alien itself. Although technology has made incredible leaps and bounds since the original, the special effects, amazingly, fall some way short of those in Carpenter's film.

There's also a slight oversight in the story that's difficult to swallow. When the team initially discover the alien, all their attention is focused on it. And yet nothing is mentioned of the incredibly large spaceship that it arrived in, just next to it. Not one of them is the slightest bit curious to see if they could pop in and have a look around, never mind to take its picture. It just feels that the discovery a UFO would be just as exciting. Apparently not.

Having a female lead however is a nice twist. Or it would have been if Winstead's character didn't feel like a pale imitation of a certain Ripley.

As a companion piece to the first film though, this version does little wrong. It's just disappointing that, taking into consideration how old the original is, it couldn't find enough stops to pull out to make it a superior film. The thing is, as 'things' stand, this 'thing' isn't the best 'thing' since the last 'thing' you saw.