Foreign body

We're kicking off our Horror October with our favorite 80's horror movie: John Carpenter's “Foreign Body”! This is one of those sci-fi-horror films that, without compromising on the thrill, allows itself to ask quite complex questions, both philosophical and even political. The story is about the struggle for survival of a research team that encounters a strange extraterrestrial life form, and in addition to the virtuoso use of special effects, the anguish, despair and rage are clearly and powerfully drawn. The film's characters are forced to act under pressure, but as scientists, they want to understand what happened, to make the disaster that hit them rationally understandable. It is here that the crux of the crisis that emerges in the film lies. Namely, it becomes more and more difficult for them to fixate on the enemy they are fighting against. Opposite them is something, “the thing”, which has no name, which is perfectly adaptable and ready to become anything. In other words, how can you resist something that you actually give your identity to? How do you repel a machine that uses you as its ingredient? It's no wonder that the most radical and interesting reactions to Carpenter's classic film see it as a kind of key to modern capitalism's self-definition. You don't necessarily have to go that far to enjoy the film.