'The Thing' Rewind: Kurt Russell

The prequel to The Thing creeps into theaters this weekend, almost 30 years after the John Carpenter version scared the bejeesus out of moviegoers, and we've got a vintage 1982 interview with the film's star, Kurt Russell, who called the creature "unbelievably bizarre."

"I think that what we're going to try to do, hopefully, is make the all-time great monster movie," Kurt told ET. "There's never been any monster close to this one. It's unbelievably bizarre."

Reuniting with director John Carpenter for the third time following Escape from New York and the TV movie Elvis, Russell explained that he wanted to try his hand at a "monster movie."

"I had a fun time reading the script and it was much better, much more interesting, than I assumed it was going to be," he said. "There was an element of paranoia that I thought would be fun to play and fun to see in the movie."

He added, "The Thing is … the most expensive production that I've been in. I think it's probably the best movie I've been in."

The new version of The Thing, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton, remains faithful to Carpenter's vision in that it's a prequel to the original story, chronicling the events that unfold at the Nordic outpost in Antarctica that discovers a downed alien spacecraft -- and its deadly, shape-shifting occupant.