Editing The Thing (1982 film) (section)

===Marketing===
{{see also|1982 in film}}
[[File:Hollywood Pacific Theater 2010.JPG|thumb|A special opening premiere of ''The Thing'' was held at the [[Hollywood Pacific Theatre]], hosted by [[Cassandra Peterson|Elvira, Mistress of the Dark]].|alt=A street view of a wide, white building. In the center is a large vertical sign that says "Pacific".]]

The lack of information about the film's special effects drew the attention of film exhibitors in early 1982. They wanted reassurance that ''The Thing'' was a first-rate production capable of attracting audiences. Cohen and Foster, with a specially employed editor and Universal's archive of music, put together a 20-minute [[showreel]] emphasizing action and suspense. They used available footage, including alternate and extended scenes not in the finished film, but avoided revealing the special effects as much as possible. The reaction from the exclusively male exhibitors was generally positive, and Universal executive [[Robert Rehme]] told Cohen that the studio was counting on ''The Thing''{{'}}s success, as they expected ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' to appeal only to children.{{sfn|Cohen|2011h}} While finalizing the film, Universal sent Carpenter a demographic study showing that the audience appeal of horror films had declined by seventy percent over the previous six months. Carpenter considered this a suggestion that he lower his expectations of the film's performance.{{sfn|Abrams|2014}} After one market research screening, Carpenter queried the audience on their thoughts, and one audience member asked, "Well what happened in the very end? Which one was the Thing{{spaces}}...?" When Carpenter responded that it was up to their imagination, the audience member responded, "Oh, God. I hate that."{{sfn|Bauer|1999}}

After returning from a screening of ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'', the audience's silence at a trailer of ''The Thing'' caused Foster to remark, "We're dead".{{sfn|Cohen|2011}} The response to public pre-screenings of ''The Thing'' resulted in the studio changing the somber, black-and-white advertising approved by the producers to a color image of a person with a glowing face. The tagline was also changed from "Man is the warmest place to hide"{{snd}}written by Stephen Frankfort, who wrote the ''Alien'' tagline, "In space, no one can hear you scream"{{snd}}to "The ultimate in alien terror", trying to capitalize on ''Alien''{{'}}s audience. Carpenter attempted to make a last-minute change of the film's title to ''Who Goes There?'', to no avail.{{sfn|Cohen|2011}} The week before its release, Carpenter promoted the film with clips on ''[[Late Night with David Letterman]]''.{{sfn|Stein|1982}} In 1981, horror magazine ''[[Fangoria]]'' held a contest encouraging readers to submit drawings of what the Thing would look like. Winners were rewarded with a trip to [[Universal Studios Hollywood|Universal Studios]].{{sfn|Beresford|2017}} On its opening day, a special screening was held at the [[Hollywood Pacific Theatre]], presided over by [[Cassandra Peterson|Elvira, Mistress of the Dark]], with free admission for those in costume as monsters.{{sfn|Cohen|2011}}