Resident Evil 4, 5 Ripped off John Carpenter's The Thing

Quick report, completely off topic:

I haven't seen John Carpenter's The Thing, starring Kurt Russell, in more than ten years.

But I have been playing the new Resident Evil incarnate games and I'm blown away by the fact I can't seem to find someone online writing about how Resident Evil 4 totally, blatantly, obviously ripped off The Thing.

The job is blatant. Hell, you even get them re-mining their homage or blatant rip-off or whatever you want to call it in Resident Evil 5.

Anyway... here we go:

The Plagas parasite in Resident Evil 4 behaves nearly exactly like the shape changing alien in Carpenter's The Thing. Tendrils rip out the back, tentacles spread out in whip-like form. It's almost like the game designers completely stole the imagery from The Thing when the shape shifter first makes itself apparent in the kennel in the arctic.

Oh yes, you also have the head vertically bisecting itself to reveal some kind of worm-like parasite... a la The Thing.

And here's the kicker. I don't remember if the dogs did this in Res 4, but I know in Res 5 their heads split identically to the dog in The Thing, revealing the exact same alien mess from The Thing.

What's sad is who knows how many kids are playing these games and have no idea about the original content.

So go rent The Thing today if you enjoyed Resident Evil 4 or 5!

Josh
joshday.com