“I need to trap these bastards in this warehouse”: Quentin Tarantino Credits Kurt Russell’s $19M Movie for Inspiring His Debut Film That Left Him Scared Sh*tless

With over 30 years of filmmaking experience, Quentin Tarantino has indelibly left his footprints in the industry. From comedy to crime, thriller to war, he has explored a variety of genre that is an inspiration for aspiring filmmakers. But, just like other great artists, he also sought inspiration from different projects that amplified his work’s quality.The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

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One such project was his film, Reservoir Dogs which came out in 1992 that introduced him as a filmmaker. However, many might be surprised that this film had elements of Kurt Russell’s The Thing movie. 

Quentin Tarantino Expressed His Love for The Thing That Scared Him

Talking to Stephan Colbert on his show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2021, the film director talked about being a ‘big horror movie fan.’ It is the very reason he is sort of immune to horror elements, however, John Carpenter directed 1982 film, The Thing was different from others. 

“I love horror movies, I’m a big horror movie fan. I don’t get scared in horror movies, I respond to suspense…I can jump by a ‘boo’ scare but that’s not really terror. I don’t get scared in movies. The Thing I got scared in”.

The Thing has several versions but Quentin Tarantino had a special corner for two of them. He shared, 

“I love Howard Hawks’ The Thing and I love John Carpenter’s The Thing…Rob Bottin’s effects in that movie are some of the greatest practical special effects ever put on a movie theatre screen”. 

He continued to praise Russell’s led movie to be “one of the greatest horror movies ever made if not one of the greatest movies ever made”. He further expressed that this movie had a huge impact on his debut film, as he tried to explore the thrill element that was implemented in the 1982 film. 

Quentin Tarantino Credited The Thing for Inspiring Reservoir Dogs 

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Talking further on this topic, Tarantino explained why that film was able to gain cult status due to suspense and fear which were rightly placed to escalate the intensity of the overall project. What enhanced the overall ambience was the suspect setting where no one was able to trust one another thus getting more paranoid of each other. 

“The movie makes the paranoia of that so palpable, so real, it’s almost like another character in the movie, the sheer paranoia of it”. 

The 1982 film eventually left an impact on the former as he shared, 

“By me putting that under a microscope and realising, ‘I’m affected by The Thing for that reason’ and I figure out why it is, when I started writing Reservoir Dogs I was like ‘I need to have that aspect that’s in The Thing’”.

He asserted that this very setting was what he explored in his debut film, 

 “I need to trap these bastards in this warehouse and no one can trust anybody else, and I want the paranoia of what’s going on in that warehouse to bounce across the walls and hopefully, like in The Thing, it will go out into the audience”.  

The movie revolves around a group of researchers in Antarctica who encounter an alien (the Thing) who can take on any living form after killing them. The group eventually starts to doubt each other as any of them could be the Thing.

Source: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert