I thought it was cute.
The original story 'Who goes there?' by John W. Campbell, Jr. was badly adapted to the silver screen, twice. It's much scarier in it's own quiet way...
Carpenter's "Thing" was more faithful to the story than the 1951 original, and I think both should be remade. The 1951 version was scarier to me. I have it on DVD and, along with "Them!" and the 1954 "War of the Worlds" watch it to death.
Yes it is, but the second attempt was much better, the first one missed the scariest part of the story, the second was not able to carry it off.
I think Alien has to be on the short list of horror movies – when I was relatively young Rage with George C. Scott, scared the hell out of me, perhaps because we had been studied rabies in school at the time.