A fan theory suggests Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill), and in 2015 he shared his version of a western thriller with The Hateful Eight.
Set in 1877, The Hateful Eight follows eight strangers who end up in a stagecoach lodge after seeking refuge from a blizzard. These characters are Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), John “The Hangman” Ruth (Kurt Russell), Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), Marco the Mexican (Demián Bichir), English Pete Hicox (Tim Roth), Grouch Douglass (Michael Madsen), and Sanford “Sandy” Smithers (Bruce Dern), all with strong personalities and different goals that made way for a lot of chaos and conflict between them – and because this is a Tarantino movie, there was a lot of violence and blood. The Hateful Eight didn’t receive the same praise as previous Tarantino movies but wasn’t a failure either, and viewers have come up with interesting interpretations of the story and its characters.
Among those is a theory that suggests The Hateful Eight is actually a horror movie in disguise, and might even be a loose remake of a classic horror movie: John Carpenter’s The Thing, released in 1982. Based on the 1938 novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr., The Thing follows a group of American researchers in Antarctica who encounter a parasitic extraterrestrial life-form that assimilates and imitates other organisms. The group is then overcome by paranoia as they don’t know who they can trust anymore, as any of them could be “the thing” in disguise. The events of The Thing take place at the research station, giving a claustrophobic vibe that enhances the experience and helps the audience empathize to an extent with the characters. Now, given some similarities (some more subtle than others) between both movies, The Hateful Eight is believed by some to be a loose remake of The Thing.
Tarantino hasn’t denied the influence of MacReady and Childs) before they die, but they still didn’t fully trust each other. The Hateful Eight even replicated certain angles and layouts used in The Thing, with some viewers sharing that the only thing Tarantino was missing was making one of his characters into a shape-shifting creature.
Tarantino is known for The Thing – rather, it’s just another example of how Tarantino builds his stories and movies, and as they address similar themes, The Thing was a great example to follow. However, The Hateful Eight could easily be a horror movie disguised as a western, but that depends on each viewer’s taste and experience with the movie.
