The Thing remains my favorite horror film. I love how Morricone composed the music, but it was under the guidance/suggestion of Carpenter, so it basically sounds like a Carpenter score (since he wasn't allowed by the producers to compose it, for some odd reason, because his role was "director" and nothing more).
Last night, I watched Final Exam for the first time. I really enjoy cheeseball '80s slashers, but this one was a little too dull for my tastes. When watching a slasher, you expect two things: kills and boobs. Aside from a quick double-kill at the very beginning, you don't see anything else exploitative until the one-hour mark. Things kinda pick up there for the final half-hour, but it's not enough to make it good. The movie spent a lot of time on character drama and humor, but aside from one character (Radish), the characters are extremely one-dimensional, even less so than numerous vapid characters in other slashers who are mostly there to show skin and die.
But earlier in the evening, I rewatched The Burning, and that's a mostly stellar slasher aside from the somewhat plodding last act.