A dark force preys upon the Reddle family, leaving question as to where the force came from and to what degree of revenge is it seeking. Based on the short story by Ambrose Bearce.
The movie starts out in 1981 in a small town in Texas where the Reddle family sits down for dinner, or supper as the Texans like to claim it. Everything seems normal, the family sits down for a plate of ribs and talks about how people in their town are going crazy and whatnot. After “supper” young Kevin Reddle and his mom go to the kitchen to light the candles on Mr. Reddel’s birthday cake. Suddenly a black tar drips down from the ceiling onto Kevin’s hand, creeping his mother out. Next thing you know Mr. Reddle walks in the kitchen to spoil the surprise, shotgun in hand. After a fierce statement or two he lifts the shotgun and gently places it’s pellets in his wife’s chest, killing her. Freaked out Kevin runs out in the yard away from his gun happy dad and jumps up in a tree. His dad finds him and draws his gun to be met by some force that tosses him into his truck and disembowels him like he’s a Thanksgiving turkey.
 
Shoot 24 years later and Kevin is all grown up, the sheriff in his town, with a kid and a lovely soon to be ex-wife, and a bad limp. Anyways he goes to see his son and ends up talking to his ex about how people in town are going crazy. Next thing you know out pops good ol’ Ted Rami as the town preacher, who informs him that he’s at the age that his father and grandfather had died and that he needs to repent and start going to church.
Back in town one of the town residents, while building a wooden ladder, goes a little nuts and kills himself by pounding his head in with the hammer and using the claw on the back to cut his face open. Next were back with Kevin as he goes home, does a little thinking then next thing he knows his surveillance cameras all go black. He walks outside to investigate to find that the cameras have been ripped off and tossed in his yard. He looks out into the yard screaming then hears a car peel out and drive off. Determined to stop his torment Kevin jumps in his car and chases after the vehicle but stops when he comes across a car where a girl has been in an accident. He runs up and tells her everything will be alright but that he needs to lift her up. Upon lifting the girl up she basically rips at the hips, as in the top half of her body are lifted and the bottom half is still under the car…yeah. So Kevin takes the body to the hospital where a doctor informs him that the people had killed themselves in manors not humanly feasible.
Slowly Kevin descends into a darkness that could destroy him as well as everyone in his town. Will the darkness take over him and kill him or will he escape in time, watch and see.
Personally I think Sean Patrick Flannery is a great actor, I’m a big Boonddock Saints fan so coming into this movie I was expecting a great role, which he plays off. I’m also a fan of Ted Rami and his brother Sam, which is pretty obvious, so I was cool with that. Now the episode is directed by Tobe Hooper who really turned me off with his recent films, but he redeemed himself here. Although the story was written by someone else I think that he orchestrated the story pretty well. Personally I’d say this is one of my favorite submissions for the Masters of Horror series. There’s lots of good gore and a well told story, so go check this one out...
A really good episode, normally would seem as if it was boring but really worth seeing, especially as the story develops. Definately worth seeing.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Masters of Horror: The Damned Thing
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Tobe Hooper
WRITING CREDITS: Richard Christian Matheson, Ambrose Bierce
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Sean Patrick Flanery, Marisa Coughlan, Ted Raimi
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 58 min
RATING: 7/10
Damned Thing, The Website/IMDB Click here
Damned Thing, The Trailer
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