Apparently the lazy writer's stylebook says that any sci-fi movie made in the 50s is related somehow to trepidations over Soviet expansionism:

By this standard, the original "Dracula" hit theaters at the height of fears about European economic instability. Just because a movie was about a monster from another planet doesn't mean it had anything to do with Cold War paranoia, or that "paranoia" was the term to apply to anything regarding the USSR. But the author doubles down:

Okay, now it's extra stupid with sprinkles on top. The term AIDS was proposed in 1982, replacing GRID, but unless you think John Carpenter frantically rewrote his script at the last moment after he got a heads-up from HHS, it's probably unlikely that the movie is a parable, veiled or otherwise, about AIDS. If anyone was worried about contagion in 1981, when the movie was made, they were worried about herpes. But that doesn't sound as deep.

That said, the prequel has one problem: everyone knows what happens. Do yourself a favor and rent the original: it's not as gooey and disgusting as the remake, doesn't have the same hopeless nihilism, and not only sports some damned snappy dialogue unlike any sci-fi movie of the era (thanks to Howard Hawks), but the Thing itself is played by our own Minnesota lad, James Arness.

Hey, wait - what's this one trying to say in its own veiled way?

Ah, the sound of a director going along with the interviewer, hoping the piece comes out complimentary.