What do you know, after a long break, “Masters of Horror” returns. With a season of ups and downs, and mostly downs, the premiere is backed by the one and only Tobe Hooper whose last entry “Dance of the Dead” left much to be desired in terms of intelligence, coherency, and all around entertainment value. “Masters of Horror” was a season of safe scares, and that’s a shame. Is this season premiere any better? Yes. Yes it really is. “The Damned Thing” has everything that was missing from the first season. There is a substantial amount of engrossing story, wonderful characterization, a stern tone, and cogent direction a la Hooper who rebounds from the abysmal “Dance of the Dead.” After his father goes on a violent fit of rage suddenly, killing his mother on his birthday, Kevin Reddle, now a sheriff, is preparing for “the damned thing” to come, but how prepared is he?
Hooper’s film, from what I’ve read, isn’t very faithful to the source story, but his take focuses on this small town who has unlocked something utterly demonic when drilling for oil. Hooper’s entry into the series connects the discovery and greed for oil, with a creature that brings out the worse in humanity and causes them to turn on one another bringing about their downfall, and eventually manifesting itself consuming them in its black essence.
Subtle as it may be, Hooper connects the oil affair with the country with this morbid tale, and puts to use the talent of Sean Patrick Flannery whose conflicted character confesses his thoughts in his own inner dialogue that chronicles his inevitable facing off against the creature that brings about a morbid and utterly surreal climax that managed to satisfy this viewer who’d found no true horror release in the first season. Shit, now this is more like it. Hooper moves away from the dung stain that was “Dance of Dead” and wows audiences with a creepy, and utterly tense installment about an invisible creature that brings out the worst in humanity thanks to a certain black substance. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season holds for us.