Tranzor’s The Thing: Late Night TV Edit

Just when you think you’ve seen it all on the World Wide Web…

While aimlessly drifting through random Google searches last week, I was somehow led to a website called www.fanedit.org, a site where movie fans upload their own versions of commercially released flicks. I was skeptical initially, as I’ve dabbled into the same thing from time to time (for the sake of my own amusement) with less than stellar results. However, one particular edit, Tranzor’s The Thing: Late Night TV Edit, made me curious; not only is John Carpenter’s The Thing my all-time favorite movie, but as I read through the description I discovered that the movie was edited to make it appear like a Chiller Theatre style of local TV broadcast. Considering that I try to catch Wolfman Mac’s Chiller Drive-In every Saturday night, I knew that this particular fan edit might be worth suffering through a day’s worth of RapidShare downloads to watch.

The editor, a fellow who goes by the name of Tranzor (duh), made The Thing black and white, added film grain and scratch noises to emulate that of an old, rotting 16mm film, and zoomed in on the widescreen picture to make a new pan & scan image. Tranzor even cut out scenes of extreme gore and cursing to further enhance the “late night fright night” television experience of yesteryear. Several other changes were made…but I don’t want to ruin any more surprises here.

Don’t take my word for it. Here’s a few screenshots of the movie that I took (bless you, Media Player Classic Home Cinema):

I have downloaded and burned the DVD. Bravo, Tranzor. Best time I’ve had watching a movie in quite a while.

The banner below will take you straight to the description page, and from there you can find links to download the DVD file folder. NOTE FOR NOVICES: You will need WinRAR to extract the DLC file, not to mention the DVD itself when all the separate RAR files have all been downloaded. You’ll also need JDownloader, an excellent batch downloading program, installed in order to open the DLC file. The DLC will automatically add the RapidShare links for the DVD to jDownloader when opened.

Which brings me to my only complaint tonight: RapidShare sucks. Unless you’re a premium user, downloading a set of RAR files that are 3GB in total size might take you a day or two (as it did for me). Luckily, Tranzor’s other edits are available through Megaupload; I only hope that he’ll add MU mirrors for this at some point.

So what are you waiting for? Get over there, download, burn, enjoy, and leave Tranzor some good feedback while you’re at it.