John Carpenter’s The Thing is considered a masterpiece, telling the story of a group of researchers in Antarctica who find themselves trapped in their research center with a shape-shifting alien.

It’s the film’s masterful building and guiding of tension throughout that makes it so undeniable a classic — tension largely aided by Morricone’s score. It’s one of the stranger corners of Morricone’s compositions, which makes its iconic status all the more delightfully confounding.

Duration: 11.00

Instrumentation: 2+1picc,2,3(3.a.bcl),3(3.a.cbsn) – 4,3(1.a.picc.trp),3,1 – timp,3perc – d.s.,pno,hp – strings