A Brief Look: ‘The Thing’ by Jock

 

 

In filmmaker John Carpenter‘s 1982 film ‘The Thing,’ a formless terror decimates the staff of a research lab working in the white dread of the Antarctic. The film’s creature exists internally in the characters like an alien poison. The monster reveals itself by erupting from within, first the mind goes and then the body — full on evisceration. Once released, the creature will find a new host. Carpenter’s film treats the human body as a susceptible landscape, the alien, the thing, a primal disease.

In the early sketches for his 2013 poster release of Carpenter’s film, UK based artist Jock first turned to the classic take of Drew Struzan. In Struzan’s original theatrical one sheet a figure is overrun by the thing, the alien pushes its way out of its host’s body as a violent light. Jock takes his final illustration deeper into the film and the nature of the monster. He follows the alien as it courses through its host, its victim, in a frenzy of spastic disembowelment. It’s pure organic chaos played out across the paper. To capture the natural flow of the alien’s invasion of the human body, Jock turned to a method reserved for schoolyard arts and crafts – blowing ink through a straw.

In an interview with Evil Tender, Jock explained, “The world around us has rules. The way a flower grows, or the way a city grows. I started thinking like that and then blowing ink through a straw, it meant that the ink would behave in an organic way because the way that the ink would have to push away is the same way a plant would grow.”

With a simple treatment and strong concept, Jock’s ‘The Thing‘ writhes. His creature fights through flesh for its release.