The Damned Thing

Much like many other commentators, I am a Bierce fan and was very much excited to see one of his stories put to film. Alas, like so many others who have abused the great early horror writers, Tobe Hooper and friends were unable to even approach the greatness of Bierce and his short story. In fact, the script had so little connection with Bierce's mini-masterpiece that I would have to say the creators of this film are guilty of name-dropping to sell the show. Perhaps what started out as an honest attempt to adapt the story somehow went wrong in the screenplay writing (which is mediocre at best, but has next to no connection with the original story) and they had no choice but see it through. That however is giving them the benefit of the doubt and then some.

So about half way through the film, I realized my hope of seeing a Bierce story on screen was not to be and I had to un-suspend and then re-suspend my disbelief in order to wince through the rest of the movie. And I mean literally, I was wincing due to the pervasive flashy strobe light effects and the jittery jump shots that left me wondering if they were in the middle of a caffeine bender or if they edited it that way on purpose. Seriously, I felt at times as though I was watching a documentary about raves. The film did have some good moments, though few and far between. It's a decent little production if you factor in that they only had 10 days to film it, and if you aren't expected a film based on an Ambrose Bierce short story of the same name.

This episode of Masters of Horror has some excellent aspects and some rather dubious ones as well. Now, I am not one of those Hooper haters. I actually think much of his work - mostly early am afraid - is quite good - and some even amazing. He definitely has talent. But this episode's faults are mostly with the script not the direction. Hooper got me interested early and the performances were all very adequate - some a bit over-the-top undoubtedly. The story concerns a man who as a child witnessed some inexplicable force taking over his father and "making" him execute the boy's mother and try to kill the boy. Thirty Years later the force rises again and haunts the boy and the town - as we discover that the force not only had changed the boy's father but also caused the townsfolk to go mad and on a killing spree. Well, things go fairly fluidly until the last fifteen minutes or so where all hell breaks looses both figuratively and literally. I like the way Hooper shot the scenes, but the story dissolves really at the end into one big "What just happened?".Sean Patrick Flannery does a good job in the lead and Sam Raimi's brother Ted gives an overblown yet fun performance as a local priest. Although Hooper shows he still has touches, he needs to find better material to work his craft with.

Based on a short story by the great Ambrose Bierce, Tobe Hooper's second contribution to the "Masters Of Horror" series, "The Damned Thing", is more solid and quite a bit better than Hooper's first episode, "Dance Of The Dead", but it is still far away from being one of the great episodes of this overall brilliant series. Tobe Hooper more than deserves the title as a 'Master Of Horror' for his 1974 masterpiece "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" alone, but his contributions to the MoH series are not quite as masterly as one could have hoped for. Still, although being one of the lesser episodes of the series, "The Damned Thing" has its qualities. Some good characters, a certain atmosphere and a storyline that is not nearly as messy as it was the case in "Dance Of The Dead" make the episode well worth watching.

In 1981, young Kevin Reddle has to experience his parents die a bloody death, after his father has been driven insane by a mysterious force in their little Texas hometown. 25 years later Kevin (Sean Patrick Flanery), who has a family himself now, has become sheriff of the little town, and is understandably still a bit paranoid due to the horrible incident in his childhood...

As stated above "The Damned Thing" is certainly not one of the best episodes of the great "Masters Of Horror" series, but it has its very eerie moments and delivers a certain amount of suspense. There are also some fun characters, such as the town's rather strange clergyman, Father Tulli played by Ted Raimi (Mr. 'Evil Dead' Sam Raimi's brother), or the naive Deputy, who plans to get famous with a cartoon character he keeps drawing. Some scenes have a great sense of black humor too, and the episode has its own atmosphere, but then, that's about it. The performances are OK, but not breathtaking and I've certainly seen great acting in some of the other MoH episodes. All things considered, "The Damned Thing" is an acceptable episode that will not leave people bored, but I would certainly recommend most of the other episodes over this. 6/10

As is the case with most second-season "Masters of Horror" episodes, 'The Damned Thing' is simply a downgrade in all departments: a poorly structured, generally ineffective tale suffering from a muddled plot, one-dimensional characters, and effects that come off as absurd in their own exaggeration (the ep opens with an overblown disembowelment and only gets sillier from there). The actors are done no favors by Richard Christian Matheson's script (a loose adaptation of an obscure story by Ambrose Bierce), which stitches together disparate moments of somber exposition and hyperactive bloodletting in a story that never really comes together: in 1981, Kevin Reddle witnessed his father go on a rampage, murdering his mother in cold blood on his birthday; 24 years later (and now a lawman played by Sean Patrick Flanery), a vague, possessive evil rises up to transform the residents of his sleepy Texas town into bloodthirsty maniacs. While Matheson seems to be making a social comment on man's reliance on fossil fuel turning civil society to pandemonium (echoes of Katrina and the Iraq quagmire), his method couldn't be less subtle. Also problematic is Flanery's portrayal of Reddle--mumble-mouthed and listless, his performance borders on sleepwalking, and a cliché-ridden voice-over does nothing to help us sympathize with him (especially when he unconvincingly heads into Jack Nicholson territory in the last reel). With so much working against 'The Damned Thing' my middle-ground rating comes from Hooper's direction: while 'Dance of the Dead' (his season one entry) combined the horrific and sleazy with pathos and social insight, the director weaved it into a dazzling barrage of nightmarish imagery through his spastic technique; similarly, 'The Damned Thing' shows him operating well within his limited resources--even if the other elements aren't up to snuff, Hooper knows when to shake the camera, and when to keep it perfectly still. But that alone really isn't enough to warrant repeat viewings.

i am one of the big fans of this would be cult series for horror fans.i believe that season 1 especially cigarette burns and imprint "wow" really good horror stuffs for the genre despite some disappointments during the first season.I hoped and desperately waited season 2 and wished it would be a decent start but it didn't damned thing not suits for the series and not a good start actually a bad one.Season 2 might be a downfall comparing season 1 but still masters of horror will and should continue to satisfy all the fans to miss serious and well-made horror stuffs for the TV and here a tip for whom not yet watch: please prepare yourself and watch this show you will like it.