I'd say The Thing is pretty gratuitous to me. Although it definitely adds to the whole experience. The gore is probably the only thing that qualifies The Thing as a horror film as the film is hardly scary. On the subject of body horror, The Fly is required viewing.
Its funny you say that because I always felt that the vampire aspect of the film really brought it down. It just seemed kind of unnecessary considering they had a pretty solid script before they introduced the vampires. Then it just seemed like an episode of Buffy after that. If we're talking first rate vampire films, then look no further than The Lost Boys.And if we're talking about vampires then really, we only need to talk about From Dusk Til Dawn. :mymelbert: