John Carpenter's The Thing.
That's right. Kurt Russell plays the lead role. You think he'll suck. He doesn't. The movie was made in 1982. You think the effects will look dated and stupid. They don't. In fact, this movie does such an amazing job of creating a believable little personal hell that I guarantee it nags at your brain for days.
I'll give you a brief overview. Some Americans manning an outpost in Antarctica find themselves visited by a seemingly crazed man. They soon realize that he was a worker from a nearby Norwegian camp. After investigating the camp (or what's left of it), our boys discover that there's something among them; something that can change it's shape to imitate other creatures. What ensues is contagious, utter paranoia where no one trusts anyone. It quickly becomes a sick, desperate mind game of trying to figure out how you could tell who was real, and how to convince them that you are who you say you are.
All of this is compounded by John Carpenter's absolutely insane genius, which manifests throughout the film in the form of the Thing's stomach turning transformations. I don't know how this man came up with the bastardized, biohazard hell-things that he did (much less make them look amazingly real with 80's technology), but he should be given many awards and immediately locked away.
Not only will this movie suffice for your Halloween action-horror-gore watching needs, but it goes above and beyond, delivering a psychological torment that makes it one of the best movies I've watched in a long time.
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