The Thing is becoming a board game — get a first look

In John Carpenter’s classic, Kurt Russell-starring 1982 horror film The Thing a lethal, shape-changing alien starts to copy the occupants of an Antarctic research station. Oh, if only there was a way to more fully experience the terror and paranoia that situation would induce! Well, now there is — or, at least, there will be when the new board game The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 is released in October.

The game takes place at the start of the bleak, desolate Antarctic winter when a group of NSF researchers manning the claustrophobic, isolated U.S. Outpost 31 comes into contact with a hostile extraterrestrial life-form. Bent on assimilating Earth’s native species, this being infiltrates the facility — creating a perfect imitation of one of the Outpost 31 crew. The staff frantically begin a sweep of the base, desperate to purge this alien infection before escaping to warn McMurdo Station that somewhere, out there in the frigid darkness, something horrible is waiting.

The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 is the first board collaboration between art gallery and movie merchandise online store Mondo and USAopoly’s designer games division, Project Raygun. The regular version of the game will be in stores and online nationwide this October and a limited edition Mondo exclusive version will be available at MondoTees.com.

The regular version of the game features artwork and designs by Justin Erickson of Phantom City Creative. The Mondo exclusive version is limited to 1,982 copies, and features different packaging artwork by the artist Jock. The limited edition game will also come with a Mondo print, enamel pin and two additional sculpted movers: ‘The Norwegian character’ and ‘The Palmer Thing.’

You can get an exclusive First Look at The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31, below.