This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr gets ready to celebrate Halloween in style with some horror releases… and he’s not just thinking of Footloose. Unhappy with his life, he follows the bucket list path of Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black, traveling to the bottom of the world where he finds himself in a small Antarctic town that has outlawed dancing. So Kevin takes it upon himself to help the people get their groove on only to discover they’ve been taken over an alien species that duplicate human form. Later, he takes a trip back to the heartland where he finds a feral woman chained in a cellar… pretty standard for some of the towns he’s been to. Finally, not being able to find a theater that is still playing Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence), he checks it out On Demand and promptly throws up.

The Thing is a prequel, not a remake. The trailers indicated Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.‘s film was going to be nothing but a series of retreads, but it’s far from it. The commercial director managed to make a film he can actually call his own. Slightly old school and slightly modern, The Thing is a surprisingly fun horror film. Although, to start with some bad news, it does take time to warm up to this prequel. One of its main problems is reminiscent of Predators – you’re watching characters wandering around spouting “What’s going on?”, when you already know exactly what’s going on. The build-up to the goods doesn’t take a great deal of time, but most of the set-up elicits that unexciting feeling of being 20 minutes ahead of your characters, especially for those who’ve seen Carpenter’s remake. Once the chaos commences in the second act, that’s when the film begins to firmly take hold. There’s an all-hell-breaks-loose moment, where more than a couple of characters are killed off, and it’s the scene where the film begins to work. This bloody and standout scene comes after the expected “let’s see which one of us is still human!” experiment, another bit the filmmakers managed to put their own unique spin on. After that “oh, crap” moment, it’s all running and screaming from thereon out.

Things have been very quiet on the waterfront for Universal’s prequel to The Thing, suitably titled The Thing. After a scrapped April release date, we’ve seen nothing from the film. No trailer. Only a few images. And no poster… until now. The coolest part of this very well done (and unofficially released) poster is that it shows the movie is indeed coming out this October. With no trailer three months before opening, it seemed as if another delay was coming. Thankfully, that’s not the case.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is the only African-American in the prequel to The Thing, something Agbaje jokes about himself. Generally, you’d get the overwhelming suspicion that he’s got no chance of survival here, considering this is a horror film. But whether he lives or dies, I’m sure watching Agbaje on-screen will make you think he’s the guy that’s going to come out on top. Agbaje is one of those actors that has a strong presence both on and off-screen. This isn’t a boy trying to play badass, but someone who has the look and charisma of a genuine action hero. Here’s what actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje had to say about working with practical effects, acting in the ’80s, and why he hasn’t seen the finale of Lost:

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje has signed on to play Derek for the prequel.

Lost star and fan favorite Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Mr. Eko) said a few magic word to MTV this weekend at Comic-Con. It involved “in talks” and “Black Panther.” You fill in the rest.