AFAIK, it is inspired by The Mountains of Madness, although the connection is very loose, mainly the setting and some elements of the early parts of the story.
EDIT: Turns out Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell was the bigger inspiration. That being said, I remember reading somewhere that The Mountains of Madness was inspiration (the same article also mentioned Who Goes There?, but that initially slipped from my memory).
I’ll be honest, I actually thought the movie The Thing was loosely based on The Mountains of Madness until I saw it was written by Carpenter.
In case you are curious, it was adapted from a story by John W Campbell.
I could see that. The monster is kinda like a shoggoth, but not broken.
AFAIK, it is inspired by The Mountains of Madness, although the connection is very loose, mainly the setting and some elements of the early parts of the story.
EDIT: Turns out Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell was the bigger inspiration. That being said, I remember reading somewhere that The Mountains of Madness was inspiration (the same article also mentioned Who Goes There?, but that initially slipped from my memory).