Not to muddy the waters any further, but IF I recall correctly, the non-anamorphic DVD release of THE THING was a true discrete 4.1 port over, with no split surrounds. It is encoded as DD 5.1, but only has mono surrounds.

Later mixes were altered where the surrounds had some minor surround left/right activity. I don't know if it was a full blown remix or if simple directionality was added to the surrounds with the mix other than that left "as-is", as was done with CLOSE ENCOUNTERS.

Have been wanting to compare the two mixes and reconfirm my recollections, but the schedule here has been chaotic as of late...