Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Nick Duguay I had mixed feelings when I saw that the first episode of the second season of this anthology show would be directed by none other than Tobe Hooper. For one thing we all know how much raw potential he has but also how he tends to make some oddly disappointing directing decisions that leave his works sadly unfulfilled. And for another this is his second addition to Masters of Horror (one of the few true masters really featured)- and his first one was good. It was decent but not great. Seeing that this one was another collaboration between Matheson and Hooper had me pretty excited because the script for Dance of the Dead, Hooper's earlier episode also written by Matheson, was nice. I actually had higher expectations for this episode than I did Dance of the Dead- for the first four minutes. And then comes in that awful slow-mo hazy effect that he used so liberally in his other episode. Why he does things like this is beyond me but I immediately gave a great sigh and settled down, ready for another lukewarm serving from someone very adept and delivering below his potential. Which was actually a blessing in disguise because now I was open to being pleasantly surprised. This time around the cinematography had a warm ambiance reminiscent of TCM. It was set in Texas, so maybe that's just what Hooper does best.In fact, the atmosphere seems to be an element that's missing in a lot of his films and is really done justice here. The script was also tighter this time around- it probably did help that it was based on a short story rather than a Matheson original. I started off this review with criticism but honestly The Damned Thing is a gem among later Hooper works and a cut above most of the episodes of Masters of Horror.

lewis-sands So many movies Such small amounts of pleasure... Or perhaps the pleasure is just too spread out eh? Anywayzz; I really enjoy movies and shows like this one. They don't pretend to be anything more than what they are like a whole lot of flicks these days.(I don't trust trailers anymore, and no, not the kind with wheels). If you want reality i get it i really do, but i don't want reality when i sit down to watch a movie.(just me i guess) I just want to be entertained for a couple of hours, and to sort of remove myself for a bit eh. This flick let me do just that I AM HAPPY TO SAY! I enjoyed the actors and i liked the story which even made me giggle a few times as well!(shhh!) Here here, and jolly good shoooe, and all that! Enjoy your time at the movies!!(I did:-))

Scarecrow-88 A young boy watches as his seemingly loving father goes violently berserk shooting his mother point-blank with a shotgun claiming, "The damned thing found me." Running frightened out of his wits, the child climbs up a tree with daddy in hot pursuit blazing his shot-gun in a state of madness. The child watches as some invisible force throws his father up against the truck ripping him apart. Twenty something years down the road, he has grown into a boozing, deeply traumatized man, a sheriff in a nearby town named Cloverdale, hoping that the damned thing will remain in Sturgess, Texas, but deep down(and as the forehead scar certainly reflects)he knows the past will come back to haunt him just like his other two generations of Reddles. Sheriff Kevin Reddle(Sean Patrick Flanery, wearing the traumatized history of his past etched into his troubled, wounded face)has installed video equipment into his home watching for that terror he fears will return, as his estranged wife and young son live in a trailer separate from him. Soon Cloverdale citizens are killing themselves and each other as loud thunder and vicious lightning noises the damned thing's return. We see in one sequence where Kevin's wife Dina(Marisa Coughlan)is taken over by the invisible force almost leading her to the murder of son Mikey(Alex Ferris). It's one example of many where rational, normal people react against type in extreme, unsettling ways displaying cruelty towards those around them. What is the damned thing and can Kevin somehow prevent history from repeating itself? Does this past incident in 1959 where a town slaughtered themselves after the Reddles drilled a certain well dry have something to do with the outbreak of violence taking place in the present? It is mentioned by a newspaper writer that perhaps an evil force was released when the Reddles started drilling for oil, could chaos have actually been unleashed on innocents? In describing the myth from stories in his childhood, Kevin tells us that those who found the townspeople dead in the streets from a past slaughter explained an overwhelming force they felt.Describing the force that is overwhelming people, I guess Dina describes her experience best..that which went through her was like a poison.If you are watching this for an exhilarating experience from the plot, you'll feel rather unsatisfied and perhaps even mystified. But, if you want pure blood and guts, Tobe delivers that in abundance. Expect entering this horror tale, lots of over-the-top violence, there's bloody carnage on display. People being blown away by shotgun blasts, one woman whose upper torso is pulled from a car as shredded flesh and blood splatters where her legs use to be, a man bashes his head with a hammer, Priest Father Tulli(Ted Raimi, how's that for casting against type!)blows a deputy's brains out with his own pistol, etc. Often, Tobe often uses frenetic camera-work, I'm guessing to communicate the panicky situation at hand during the action where characters are running for their lives from threats. The oil monster at the end is something to behold, I'll tell you. The film has narration from Kevin explaining his terrifying past and his fears. We see in one eerie scene where the scar on Kevin's forehead opens to reveal a demented grin..with teeth and tongue emerging!

Christopher Smith This will be short since Damned Thing is not worthy of a long comment. It certainly isn't worthy enough to be part of a show called Masters of Horror. I'm a huge Tobe Hooper fan and regardless of how bad some of his films have been, I've always kept in mind that he almost never has final cut with his projects. Hooper, like many of the other directors in the Masters of Horror series, have spent years doing low-budget studio pictures that for one reason or another, hadn't been properly handled. With the MOH series, the directors are guaranteed final cut so there is no excuse for a once extremely talented director like Tobe Hooper to turn in such a mind-numbingly appalling product, especially after last season's disappointing Dance of the Dead episode. Hooper continues that disappointment with this sloppy, annoying, and altogether boring tale of an evil force that hunts a Texas sheriff. That sentence right there should be a good indication of mini-film (as the masters of horror like to refer to them as) is: an unoriginal, occasionally incoherent one. The story takes a backseat to irritating supporting characters (much like with Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), rapid editing, and gore that seems to be in for no other reason than its Showtime, and the Hooper can get away with it. At least Dance of the Dead, Hooper's previous Masters episode, had a good plot and Robert Englund hamming it up. There are no good qualities to Damned Thing, by far the worst production Hooper has ever had his name on as well as the worst MOH episode yet. Don't even bother checking it out when it comes to DVD. 0/10