"T" Before "Z", Except Before "Zombie"

 

Storyboard From "The Thing"

John Carpenter's "The Thing" is a story that is an instance of the "Huis Clos" or "No Exit" type, a type which is most common in zombie films.

There is not only a "haunted house", Outpost 31, that forms the locus of the action, but this location itself is totally isolated within a desert, Antarctica. (Antarctica is formally considered a "desert" region... lack of rainfall, inhabitants, and whatnot.)
Furthermore, there is the actuality or probability of the entire Earth becoming a "desert", in the sense of becoming bereft of human lives in a disnmal future of "Things" or zombie populations.

The existential threat is more like that of an incoming Chicxulub asteroid that threatens to ruin the dinosaurs perfectly good morning stroll across the Yucatan.

In essence, there is a distinct chance that the sun will not come out tomorrow for humankind...

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