Touchstone films and filmmakers change every decade or two whenever a new group of young cinema fans get inspired to make their own art because of the art of someone else. For horror (and some sci-fi, for that matter), we’re currently in the stage where that touchstone is John Carpenter. And while it’s easy to see the influence of Halloween on It Follows—with its constant, walking threat coming after our lead character—editor and Vimeo user Alex Kalogeropoulos sees similarities between another famous John Carpenter movie, 1982’s The Thing and Mitchell’s film, and when you watch the below supercut, it’s easy to see why.

I never once thought about the angle of both the titular Thing and the titular It that Follows being unknown, possibly otherworldly entities that can replicate and look like anyone they choose. That’s really cool. And it’s also pretty amazing to mix Ennio Morricone’s score for The Thing with Disasterpiece’s score for It Follows. Both might give me nightmares.

Even if you’re cold on either of these movies (cold because of Antarctica or otherwise), you can agree that there’s definitely visual and thematic parallels to be drawn, and really isn’t that what the internet is for? You can see Carpenter’s influence on many films coming out in recent years—two that spring to mind being Adam Wingard’s You’re Next and The Guest, which take not only the themes and approach to filming them, but also the driving synth scores.

Let us know your thoughts on the video and/or the comparison in the comments below!

HT: Indiewire