Whether the remake was better or worse. Just a good remake.

The Blob from 1986 was pretty great. Seriously R rated stuff.

The 1958 movie was pretty good too.

1982's The Thing comes to mind.

Shadowrun Dragonfall is a good remake of a long gone cyber-fantasy-punk

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The Thing is certainly a favorite of mine.

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The Blob from '86 was pretty sweet. One of the nastiest creatures in fiction.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers from '78 was good, but not better than the original.

Two of the worst remakes--though you didn't ask--are War of the Worlds (2005) and the newer The Day the Earth Stood Still (don't remember or care when it came out; it was awful).

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I see.

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My father thought that the original the thing was better than John Carpenter's version.

I kinda disagree.
I feel that those two movies aren't in the same area.
It's like comparing Alien to Aliens.
One was a suspense filled movie, where was the alien?
While the other one was a battle for survival.

The first Thing movie was a 50's sci fi movie. The thing was something that was different from the people there but there was little paranoia.

While john Carpenter's movie had more horror and suspense elements.
Here anyone could be the monster.
Who was the monster? Could be anyone!

No one mentions the prequel movie, the one that explained where the husky came from.
The one that the guys in the helicopter were shooting at in John carpenter's thing.

The '86 blob was scary fast.
The original blob, well, if you can crawl at a decent speed, you'll be safe.
Though we do have to give props to the original or we would never have the remake.

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Can I admit I'm mostly familiar with John Campbell's novella "Who Goes There?", rather than either of the Thing movies based on it?

--Sweetie Belle

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John carpenter's movie was closer to the novella than the '50s movie.

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Well, the original novella was classic, and very good, so I'm probably more in favor of the version closer to it.

I've also read "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K Dick, watched the original Total Recall, and read the Piers Anthony novelization of Total Recall, though I never got to the newer movie of it. The evolution of Total Recall was kinda strange...

--Sweetie Belle

John Carpenter's 1982 version of 'The Thing' is absolutely the definitive version, and the best filmed version of the story 'Who Goes There?' by John W. Campbell.

Why? Carpenter's 'The Thing' follows the original story even to specific set pieces, it concerns itself with the original meaning and message of the classic story, the special effects are all practical effects: no CGI (they didn't even HAVE CGI back then!) yet stand the test of time, the acting is phenomenal, the music is perfect, and the sound effects are... perfect. Carpenter's 'The Thing' basically could not be better.

The first, original fifties version of the film, with James Arness, has nothing whatsoever to do with the original story, it features a giant carrot in a captain spaceman suit, and it is... well it is just plain badly written and filmed. It's terrible! Why? The entire point of 'Who Goes There?' is that a creature can shapeshift and become anyone - so you never know who is the alien and who is your friend. Captain carrot in the 50's version cannot even shapeshift. At all. The entire point of the story is lost.

John Carpenter for the absolute win!