First, in honor of Tobe Hooper's Masters of Horror: Season 2 episode, "The Damned Thing", which aired on Friday night, we posted our exclusive one-on-one interview with the show creator Mick Garris. In addition, we've also posted our review of Hooper's 60-minute episode, which can be found inside. The episode is the apocalyptic tale of a monstrous force that devastates Sheriff Kevin Reddle’s family and his small Texas town.
The Damned Thing (MoH 2.1)
Reviewed By: Tex Massacre
6/10 or 3 Skulls
I’ll be the first to admit that I was no fan of Director Tobe Hooper’s last episode of Masters of Horror. DANCE OF THE DEAD was painful – and not in that good Eli Roth/Alex Aja kinda way. So, I was pretty apprehensive at the prospect of leading off this season’s MoH with a Hooper directed adaptation of an Ambrose Bierce story. Bierce whose favored short is the often imitated – never duplicated – brilliance of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge – is a brilliant writer who, like H.P. Lovecraft, can relate tales from a first person perspective that are so captivating it is nearly akin to sitting in the room with the storyteller. The Damned Thing is one of Bierce’s shorter works and is presented with a combination of journal entries and jury testimony regarding an unseen force that has taken the life of local man. Hooper’s vision keeps the force but forsakes the rest of the details for a fresh perspective.
Twenty-four years ago, Sheriff Kevin Reddle (Sean Patrick Flannery) watched his father brutally murder his mother before turning the shotgun on young Kevin. In a moment – while running for his own life – Young Kevin witnessed the utter annihilation of his father – this time by an invisible monster violently thrashing the limp corpse and gutting the man against the side of his pick-up truck. Over the years, the town of Cloverdale has seen its past share of strange occurrences. Now, the winds are whistling again and the folks that make up this sleepy West Texas town are about to remember a long forgotten curse whose sole existence is to exact bloody vengeance.
I’ll give to screenwriter Richard Christian Matheson (also responsible for DANCE OF THE DEAD) this is a far cry from last years mess and heads above some of the second generation genre scribes other works. He takes little more than a plot point from Bierce’s short and transforms it into a fully fleshed out mythology in just under an hour. Hooper’s direction is pretty typical - although the opening chase sequence harkens almost directly to the most terrifying moments of the Masters original “massacre” reminding viewers that - although his career has been sporadic at best - the visceral moments are what make the best Tobe Hooper films that much more palatable. The cinematography from DP Jon Joffin looks great and the effects from the crew at KNB are possibly more graphic in the first 5-minutes of this film than throughout the entirety of last season - and that’s saying quite a bit, if you omit IMPRINT from the equation.
The standout point in this episode is the whole performance from Sean Patrick Flannery (BOONDOCK SAINTS) who makes his lived-in characterization of Reddle rife with tragedy and inner strength. In fact, the personification is so authentic that when his nerves are shaken to the very fringes of sanity, the actor recalls the very best moments of Jack Nicolson’s performance as the ill-fated Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING.
So, as Masters of Horror begins it’s second season, the premiere entry may not be as startling as last season’s INCIDENT ON AND OFF A MOUNTAIN ROAD, but fingers remain crossed that this new year will bring more improvements over the uneven nature of the last round. So far, chalk one up for the man from Texas, Hooper’s damned film is helluva lot better than the last thing he brought us, and that’s good enough for me.
Whatsup with this review? it sound like the guy reviewing is saying, "well since dance of the dead sucked, then by comparison this one is good". pardon the expression, but thats like comparing shit to vomit. This episode was god awful, far more boring than Dance, and i hated flannery. his acting is so dry and uninteresting that its painful to watch. he acts like uwe boll directs
Ah lighten up, it wasn't that bad of an episode.
Compared to the above guy and the AICN talkback, I seem to be the only one who actually enjoyed this.
What the hell are you expecting with this series ? Compare it to the new Twilight Zone series if you want a "lesser of two evils" comparison, but at least this series has some balls.
You know I am pretty forgiving as far as horror movies go. Hell even more so as far as the Masters of Horror series goes. But you just can't shovel shit like this on the screen. This thing was kinda boring. I am sorry. I did like Flattery's acting. The script sucked, the supporting cast was horrible and it may have been saved by the end, the end which makes the whole second half of Jeepers Creepers look pretty damned good.
3 out of 6 skulls? Come on give me a break, The Saint says 2 out of 6 skulls. Only reason for this is some key gory moments, some cool as shotgun blasts.
As for Hooper and this is going to sound harsh he needs to step up and stop living in the shadow of TCM. With Dance of the Dead, Toolbox Murders and now this piece of trash, give us something different that is respectible.
Yes it was that bad, could of been good. Could of had tension build better. Could of done without the cheesy ass ending. Not going to spoil it for you, but it was super cheesy.
Boo...and next week on Masters of Horror we have a remake of "The Burbs". WTF? Two words Cigarette Burns...big shoes to fill, that is your standard to go with. Now stop fucking around.
I LOVE Bierce. I'm about to buy this and I tell ya, if this is a piece of shit like every HP Lovecraft movie, I'm gonna cry.
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I’ll be the first to admit that I was no fan of Director Tobe Hooper’s last episode of Masters of Horror. DANCE OF THE DEAD was painful – and not in that good Eli Roth/Alex Aja kinda way. So, I was pretty apprehensive at the prospect of leading off this season’s MoH with a Hooper directed adaptation of an Ambrose Bierce story. Bierce whose favored short is the often imitated – never duplicated – brilliance of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge – is a brilliant writer who, like H.P. Lovecraft, can relate tales from a first person perspective that are so captivating it is nearly akin to sitting in the room with the storyteller. The Damned Thing is one of Bierce’s shorter works and is presented with a combination of journal entries and jury testimony regarding an unseen force that has taken the life of local man. Hooper’s vision keeps the force but forsakes the rest of the details for a fresh perspective. 
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