The Dammed Thing is based on a teleplay written by Richard C. Matheson son of legendary horror writer Richard Matheson from the short story by Ambrose Bierce. This Masters of Horror episode also has a great director behind the camera; Tobe Hooper, the man who directed the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist. So you figure the film would be fantastic with such a group of people working on it, however the film did have a few flaws here and there, and the damned thing itself reminded me of venom from Spider-man.
The Damned Thing stars Sean Patrick Flanery (The Insatiable, Kaw) as a guy named Kevin. When Kevin was a young boy he experienced a supernatural death of his parents. Now as an adult he is the sheriff of the same town in which he lived in his whole life. He still lives in the same home his parents were killed in, and his relationship with his wife is on the rocks. Kevin also has a son whom is about the same age he was when his parents died. Now twenty four years later the damned thing that killed his father is about to return. The town folks begin to go crazy, killing one another and mutilating themselves. Now it’s up to Kevin to stop the very damned thing that took his parents lives or end up dead himself.
At first glance the film started off very well, we get a piece of the whole back story in which turns out to be not only a very well written beginning with not only a great scene for character and story development, but we’re treated to a very brutal death scene. However after the first scene the story takes a bit of a dive. Yes, we’re thrust into a story that runs mainly on character development, but the plot and story develop very slowly and pretty much take a back seat to our characters. While the story is told to us in bits and pieces I pretty much just wanted it to get to the point. It’s never really explained why the damned thing attacked the towns people, but it is explained at the end as to why it was after Kevin and his family. I for one wish there was more of an origin that could of been placed on what it did to the town rather than who it was after.
The acting in this Masters of Horror episode is not half bad. There are a few familiar faces besides Sean Patrick Flanery in the lead role of Kevin. Seans performance by the way was very good. Sean’s wife Dina is played by Marisa Coughlan (Teaching Mrs. Tingle) who did a pretty good job with her role as the young mother, and Kevin’s son was played by Alex Ferris (RV) who also was not half bad. Ted Raimi also has a cameo role as a crazy priest. The rest of the supporting cast is not that bad, but for the most part they were pretty much your basic supporting television cast.
The overall production value is pretty good, I enjoyed the sets and the way in which Tobe Hooper directed the film. It had some pretty good visuals and some really good make-up effects. The death scenes were very well thought out and original, however the CGI used in the film to bring “the damned thing” to life looked like a poor man’s version of venom from spider-man like I mentioned above. While I realize the thing is different in origin, one can’t help but think of venom as a reference. This took a lot of the scare away from film for me, and the fact that the CGI look fake kind of ruined it for me as well.
Overall, The Damned Thing is not that bad, it’s nothing great either but it did have some good visuals here and there and some pretty gruesome death scenes. It’s not by any means Tobe Hoopers best work, or one of the better Masters of Horror episodes. In it’s own way it has a great eighties camp sort of feel to it. It reminded me a lot of the Blob and the Creepshow 2 story The Raft. Like I said it’s not the best Masters of Horror episode, but it was enjoyable for the most part. Just don’t expect the plot to be very faced paced.
– Horror Bob
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