‘The Thing Expanded’ – John Carpenter Discusses the Fire Stunts of His Sci-fi Horror Classic in Exclusive Clip! [Watch]

I love a good fire stunt, but concede that they are extraordinarily dangerous. John Carpenter‘s sci-fi horror masterpiece, The Thing, is full of them. Today, Dread is proud to share the exclusive clip below from the upcoming documentary on the film, The Thing Expanded. In it, the legendary director discusses his concerns over lighting stuntman Anthony Cecere on fire during a pivotal scene.

Directed by Ian Nathan and on its way from CREATORVC (the team behind In Search of Darkness), The Thing Expanded will feature “five hours of new insights, stories, and revelations into John Carpenter‘s Classic”.

Said producer Josh Weiss, “With the Oscars introducing a ‘Stunt Design’ category at the 100th annual ceremony in 2028, now seems as good a time as any to recognize the audacious work of Anthony “Tony” Cecere, who agreed to be set aflame not once—but TWICE—for one of the most iconic moments in horror history. His courageous contribution to the Carpenter film ensured both a fiery homage to 1951’s The Thing from Another World and a thrillingly explosive climax to the infamous blood test scene.”

Added Nathan, “”John Carpenter doesn’t like fuss, and hates compliments! He’s a man of carefully considered words. You have to tease things out of him, and he can sound a little gruff. But that gives the doc texture. As much as the interviews are about mining for information, it is about the viewer hanging out with Carpenter and all his fellow interviewees”.

“With John, what surprised me was the emotion – he still finds it hard to talk about The Thing. Its initial failure still hurts. And that conflict is very powerful,” continued the director. “Nevertheless, once we got into the detail, and the memories started to flow, his wonderful, dry humour emerged. And he was still defiant about not providing solutions to The Thing‘s central mysteries, and that is at it should be. But he was really illuminating on so much: how he constructed the mystery, how he cast the film, how good that dog was on camera, the all-encompassing theme of paranoia, Rob Bottin‘s genius, the all-too-realistic shoot in British Columbia (John does not deal well with the cold!), the problematic score, and, yes, that painful release in 1982. He is the heartbeat of my story. A great, great filmmaker who fully deserves his flowers.”