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.
I could see that. The monster is kinda like a shoggoth, but not broken.
In case you are curious, it was adapted from a story by John W Campbell.
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).